


The other life

by Demonia



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days, Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, Family Issues, Feels, Flirting, Fluff, Humor, Jason is a grumpy bear, Multi, Rating may go up, Romance, Secret Identity Fail, Unresolved Sexual Tension, band au, lot of awkwardness, rockband or something, roy being a little shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-14 21:55:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4581531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demonia/pseuds/Demonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Band!AU<br/>A story in which Jason Todd did not become the Red Hood, a story in which he did not go back to Gotham. Instead he decided to chase his dream, a dream that had been created when he got his first guitar and whenever he listened to his favorite songs, and a dream that had been chattered when he became Robin. His dream was to create, to write and sing … but most of all to leave his former life behind. It had been years since his death and the sudden zombie revival and then the magical revival through the pit, years since his training with the Al Ghuls.<br/>He thought he was doing pretty damn good for a guy that had mental issues and anger management problems. He even thought that he could forget about his previous life all together. Guess he thought wrong …</p><p>Jason had made up a lot of excuses to keep himself calm (and sane) but in the end the things you fear most tend to turn into reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> He had his own band and they were getting pretty big, the public loved them, tours around the world, concerts sold out … basically the good life (although it was very busy and stressing, everything to keep his thoughts away from the hate, misery and god the crowbar … the laughter). The only worrying part was the grandiose rise in fame for the last year (and no it wasn’t because of the fangirls/boys). Then again how could they possibly realize? Nobody of the batfamily had time to even watch tv (occasionally the news) let alone get interested in some band … right? Even if someone did they would most likely only listen to the songs … Jason had made up a lot of excuses to keep himself calm but in the end the things you fear most tend to turn into reality.
> 
> Background info:  
> He died a painful death (the Joker obviously) and then he came back as usual. Had to crawl his way back up, was a zombie/brain damaged and then was thrown into the pit. Mixed up the story a bit and also the ages of the characters. Jason himself is around 23, Dick is 25, Tim 20/21 and Damian is 17. I guess Bruce is around 45 and the girls (Stephanie and Cassandra) are around 22. Roy and Kori aren’t vigilantes in this. Kori is just a human and Roy is just a guy. They are Jason’s band members. Jason does the lead vocals, songwriting, guitar and sometimes keyboard. Kori does the backing vocals, bass guitar, violin and keyboard. Roy obviously the drums, backing vocals (rap?) sometimes guitar. Heavily inspired by Thirty Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Adam Lambert’s insane voice and a lot of random songs and other lovely bands.
> 
> !! I will use random songs that I like for the band but suggestions (or just imagining that it is a different song) are always welcome.
> 
> Enjoy!

Chapter 1

* * *

 

A soft catchy melody accompanied by a raspy teenage voice that fit with the music in all the right ways. A small pleasant smile on the serene looking face of the singing teen, the teen that normally burned as bright as fire, with a tongue as sharp as a knife. For those who knew him this scene looked unearthly … out of place. For how could someone so destructive, impulsive and potty mouthed – ‘imperfect’ someone added in the back of his head - look so breathtakingly content and calm (even angelic).

The pace of the tune quickened as the black haired youth’s voice gained volume – not too much just the right amount. Still he couldn’t hear the words. It sounded so familiar, the tune, the octaves, everything about the song reminded him of … home. He was in the land of happiness with the edges in a haze.

When the teen finished there was the sound of clapping coming from the hallway. His bright teal eyes snapped to the door in an instant and the previously serene aura immediately made place for the defensive scowl and rebellious attitude as the boy realized who had been lurking in the dark. A small blush appeared on his freckled cheeks.

_“Little wing that was great!“_ A cheerful voice exclaimed. Who was it? He couldn’t tell, the silhouette of the stranger standing in the doorway was too blurry and dark. He didn’t have time to wonder as the room was taken over by an insane laughter and on the walls shadows started creeping. “It would be even better if it had some **cries** and **screams** in it! Let me help you make it _**perfect**_.” The owner of the insane laughter said as he approached. All the teen could look at was the crowbar he was holding in his purple clad hands. The vision was as clear as day and he could see how the man lifted the crowbar in the air … and then how it came down.

 

Jason’s eyes snapped wide open as he lunged forward and away from his comfortable bed. As he tried to scramble away from the empty threat he managed to tangle himself in the black sheets and lose his balance. 

With a very ungraceful fall – he tried to grab whatever he could to stop himself from falling and knocked over the lamp in the process – and a loud thud he ended up on the cold (and hard) floor. He groaned in pain as he lied there with his face on the floor. That was a great start of the morning, he could already feel that today would be a good day.

Not.

Screw the ‘get up on the wrong side of the bed’ have you ever tried the floor? Yeah nothing screamed ‘bad day’ like waking up from your worst nightmare and then face planting into the floor.

His nose itched painfully and he could feel something trickle down from his nostrils. “Great.” The dark haired male muttered as he rolled onto his back and proceeded to wipe his bruised and bleeding nose. So much for keeping his face pretty, their manager would flip if she saw him now. She would also flip if she knew about the nightmares, probably would send him to the asylum (hopefully not Arkham) if she knew about his previous life. This was exactly why she didn’t know shit about him apart from the ‘make me famous and I’ll make you rich’ part. She probably didn’t even care as long as he didn’t ruin his image.

 

No drugs, no hookers, no parties without prior approval, no crashing property and especially hotel rooms, no scandals and the list went on. His eyes had widened comically when she handed him the contract with about a million ‘ _don’t does_ ’ and other shit like that. He had to admit that he did read everything before actually signing and that had earned him a baffled looking Roy and a Kori that nodded her head in understanding and agreement. Never knew if there was a catch with people like their manager… She was probably some dark circuit mafia leader. At least a BDSM Mistress …

Jason shuddered at the thought of seeing Miss Smith in a latex skintight costume and holding a whip. “Why. Just why, brain.” He groaned as he covered his eyes with his fingers and then rubbed his face.

When his brain had finally abandoned the images (both the clown and the latex) he released his hands from his face and placed them behind his head instead.

 

Their manager always said that soon there wouldn’t be a single person out there that hadn’t heard about them. Even when she had taken them under her wing, when they were nobodies barely holding up, she always looked at them with pride. Then it was just a matter of time, hit after hit after hit.

They always had free reign and she never monitored their band activities. You want a song about bashing Superman with Kryptonite? Go ahead. Want to bitch on the president? Uhm … okay sure. What about a song with dubstep elements? ‘Now listen here you little shits.’ Luckily that last part had been a joke.

They were her children, her masterpieces, as she loved to call them and of course rub it into the faces of other managers (especially at those annoying parties) as she would smugly stir her cocktail and watch them grimace and scowl.

 

Jason knew that she meant there wouldn’t be a single person out there that hadn’t heard their songs. That was a good thing, they had been striving to that level for years now. Worldwide fame, tours around the globe, loyal fans, they could finally deliver their songs – their feelings and thoughts – to the world. They had been aiming for that, their own kind of rebellion, one that didn’t involve violence. ‘Make music, not war’ Roy had once called it.

 

Yet here he was, he was scared shitless. He knew that fame would mean that people would get interested in the band … and their persona. That was what had him worried. Unwanted attention and no he didn’t mean the crazy fangirls and fanboys. Okay, yes, those too.

He especially meant his so-called past family.

Now he knew for a fact that they were all very busy people. Nobody in the batfamily even had time to watch television, apart from the news and weather on occasions. It would be even more unlikely that someone from the family would be interested in the band. Probably obsessed if he or she went as far as checking their personas and finding out that something was off. Maybe even a bit more interested in them than needed … but that still left the part of only Bruce, Dick and Alfred personally knowing him. The additions to the family couldn’t possibly realize he was the dead Robin since they had never known him. Hell they hadn’t even seen him (probably). So that was a big fat ‘Jason calm you tits that will never happen’.

Even if they did get interested in the band, and on the radio you couldn’t see who was singing so that wasn’t as worrying (even flattering if they liked his songs), would they even recognize him? So many years had passed by and then there was also the being officially ‘dead’ part.

He was probably just overthinking it, nobody would see the connection between the dead teenager Jason Todd and the singer of the Outlaws that went by the name Jackson. Of course he had changed dramatically over the years. He had grown taller, leaner, more muscular and oh yes he had that cool white streak in his hair now. Did he also mention the creepy green glow in his eyes that sometimes intensified?

Yeah there was absolutely no way.

 

His mind seemed to calm down after a while. Thinking about his past life always made him panic. It made him feel angry, miserable and sad all at once. It gave him horrible headaches and the urge to run and break things but also crawl into a ball and cry himself to sleep.

He had enough of self-pity and breaking himself over the past. He was over it, he was a new person and he had a different life now. A life in which he didn’t have to be scared of dying, scared of getting hurt … scared of being betrayed. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Jerkson, you look like shit.” Cackled Roy as Jason walked into their currently shared penthouse living room. Always with the stupid name calling, thought Jason as he sighed and walked to the fancy leather sofa placed in the middle of the room. He promptly sat down and decided to ignore Roy for the moment.

The ignore tactic mostly didn’t work with the annoying ginger so it was but a matter of time before Jason would be barking back at him. Still it was worth a try.

“Are you okay, love?” Asked Koriand’r in a worried voice as she settled her attention away from the fashion magazine she had been reading and onto Jason. He looked paler and more tired than usual, his hair was a mess and his nose looked bruised. “Did you get any sleep?” She asked as she put away the magazine all together and walked over to the silent figure sitting on the couch. She placed her soft hands into his messy locks and started rubbing circles.

“Oh, I bet you Kori he didn’t, just wondering what kind of girl he had that she opted for punching him in the nose but not leaving and scratch marks on his back.” Roy piped in with an amused smirk on his face as he stirred his morning coffee. “You should really introduce me to her.” He added before taking a sip and getting glared at by two pairs of different green colored eyes.

“How about I introduce you to my fist instead?” Jason bit back but quickly relaxed as Kori started massaging his head more professionally. Kori was his guardian angel – one that kept him from killing Roy - he was sure of it.

“Oh common, Jason baby! I was just kidding.” Roy said as he laughed and placed the coffee on the island of the kitchen.

Yeah, they knew his real name … yeah they also knew about his past, not the full story but more than enough. They were his family, his friends and also his band members. After all that they had been through since the beginning they had the right to know. He knew about their lives too, he knew plenty enough to say that their lives hadn’t been the best either.

 

“Smith said that she would bring us breakfast so there is no need for you both to blow up the kitchen.” The obnoxious ginger said as he stretched his limbs and showed off his weird green colored tattoos. Would this guy ever shut up? Probably not.

“Why is she bringing us breakfast anyway?” Asked Kori as she let go off Jason’s head and he thanked her with a sweet smile on his face. He had really needed that head massage. Now he was also wondering why their manager would bring them breakfast. She never did things like that without a reason.

“Said she wanted to talk about our next tour or concert or something. Details and shit.” Roy said with a shrug as he plopped himself down next to Jason earning himself a look that was as filthy as the streets of Gotham. Roy just smiled in return and patted him on the leg. One day … one day …

“We just came back from a world tour, she’s a fucking slave driver!” Jason exclaimed in a dramatic voice. They were way too tired to talk or even think about that shit now.

 

“Who are you calling a slave driver, kid?” A middle-aged woman’s voice resounded through the room. It sounded a bit menacing.

The three young-adults in the room stiffened and one of them cursed under his breath. “Well fuck me.” Jason whispered as he turned his eyes to their manager standing in the hallway. She looked so weird standing there all dressed in black from head to toe, even her hair was black, in the way too white hallway of the penthouse.

“I treat you like my own kids and this is the kind of treatment I get.” She said with fake hurt lingering her words and she wiped away a fake tear but her face remained impassive.

“Sorry mommy.” Said Roy before cringing when Kori hit him across the head and Jason punched him in the gut. Miss Smith shook her head as she placed the two bags filled with croissants, bacon and fried eggs on the island.

  

* * *

 

  

“No, absolutely not.” Hissed Jason as he gripped his fork so tight that he would have snapped it in half – if he was superman. His eyes were burning with anger as he looked at his plate. Kori and Roy shared a worried look.

Miss Smith had brought up Gotham. They had gotten a good offer to perform there in a month. There was a hella good stage and the arena had a capacity of around 80.000. It wouldn’t be the biggest stage or the biggest audience (Metropolis had been just that for sure) but it sure as hell would be one of the best considering it was Gotham they were talking about.

The older woman sighed, every time she brought up Gotham, Jason would react like that. It was no use it seemed even after all this time. “I understand, I will tell them we refuse.” She said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. Roy and Kori looked relieved that she didn’t force them, for all they knew she actually could. “The reason will be that you’re too tired from the world tour to take on such a big concert for now. Okay?” She continued as she stood up from the table, their little ‘family’ breakfast had been nice until she brought up business. They nodded in unison and Jason’s shoulders slumped as he closed his eyes.

She then brought her plate to the sink. “Oh and this doesn’t mean that you’re free, you hear me?” She said as she started washing. “We have a tv show in Japan to record this week and an interview with the Magazine and ---”

Their agenda for the upcoming month made them groan.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra shows her true colors. Tim is a dork. Batfamily feels ensue.   
> Little extra with Jason that is totally unrelated but still so damn relevant because he is such a grumpy bear with a heart of gold. He just really wanted his coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had so much fun writing this, jeesh. Especially the part with Jason.  
> Long chapter incoming!  
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 2**

* * *

 

 

“Oh man.” A moan filled with disappointment rose above the sound of the television.

The living room of the Wayne manor was occupied for once. The television was currently on (surprise) and showing one of those shows where celebrities appeared to be questioned and put into awkward situations by the host (whose name was ironically always used for the television show).

“What is it?” A female voice said from the other side of the room. Rustling could be heard next as the blonde haired woman reached for some chips.

She had been reading some fantasy novel while the male on the couch was watching television, flipping from one channel to the next and finally settling on one.

She was glad he did or she would have taken away the remote from him and put on her usual series. The reason that she hadn’t done that was because one, this was the first time in months that Tim could relax and actually do something fun (even if that was watching television) and two, he had been injured while fighting Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn that night.

Bruce, more like Batman, had sent him home immediately when they had captured the two destructive villains and forbidden him from going on further patrol.

Stephanie had come back from her own patrol, apart from Ivy and Harley running wild the night had been pretty quiet, when she had noticed Tim watching television. He was all bruised and battered, had bandages on his head and torso. He looked miserable as he lounged on the big couch.

She could always watch the episode later, everything to keep Tim’s mind away from the gutter and the pain.

“Well you know that band? The one that was supposed to perform in Gotham Arena next month?” Tim said as he tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as he hissed in pain. Broken ribs for sure…

“Can you be any more vague?” Stephanie said as she rolled her eyes at Tim. Why did their whole family always have to speak in riddles and vague terms?

“The Outlaws?” Tim said accusingly and with a raised eyebrow.

Her blue eyes turned to the television. Oh, right. Now she knew what Tim had been watching.

She saw three people sitting on white sofas, getting questioned by a middle-aged man that looked like one of those people from the news and thought he was the bomb.

The one that stood out the most was a red haired guy that wore a - stupid - trucker hat with some white … teeth (?) on it. Maybe it was supposed to be a crown? She wasn’t sure. He was wearing bright red clothes and actively chatting with the host. He was pretty handsome she had to admit but the trucker hat ruined everything.

Next was the girl with them. Her hair looked like it was made from fire, like if you touched it you’d burn your hand. It was a ridicules thought but she kind of wanted to see if just maybe it really was fire and not hair. Also she wanted to know what hairstylist she went to because damn if those were highlights and dip dye … she would kill to have hair like that.

The woman was really pretty and Stephanie could have sworn that she recognized her from the cover of a magazine. If she remembered correctly she had even read an interview with her. Her name was Korian? Koriander? Like the herb? She’d ask Tim later.

Lastly was the singer of the group. Stephanie wasn’t disappointed in the least, he looked exactly like she imagined rock stars to look like. Charming smile on his slightly tanned face, dazzling blue eyes that had a hue of green in them, black hair that was middle length and stuck to all sides.

Guess it was styled that way. Not that she was complaining, he was a hunk and his hair just added to that image. The white part in the front fit his image way too well.

She really had to find their stylist.

They all talked so easily, so naturally, you could tell that the spotlight and the audience loved them. Even the newsman seemed to swoon under their attention.

“What about them?” She finally asked.

“Well as I said, they were supposed to perform here.” Tim said as he looked at Stephanie. “In Gotham Arena even.” He added with unbelief, swinging his hands to emphasize his point and cringing when his injuries reminded him not to do that again.

Stephanie pursed her lips in annoyance. “Get to the point Timbo.”

“Well they just said they won’t be coming here to perform. They refused.” He said looking down. “I understand their reasoning. I can only imagine how tired they are from their world tour but still. I really wanted to go see them live.” He continued with a sigh as the program ended.

“And how exactly did you want to do that?” Stephanie asked eventually her eyes narrowing in accusation.

They always patrolled in the evening and in the night and from what she knew concerts were always around that time.

Now Bruce would probably give Tim a night off, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that such a big concert – and in Gotham – would surely attract unwanted attention from their villains. Maybe that was even the reason that the band had never dared to perform in Gotham. She couldn’t blame them.

That would mean that either Tim was planning to put himself in danger by going as civilian, she kinda doubted that, or he was planning to lurk there all night as Red Robin because he was ‘making sure nothing would happen’. Two birds one stone, right? And if anything he would even get to save them, show off that he was a superhero, probably also get an autograph and stuff…

Tim threw her a cocky grin, as if he knew what she had been thinking. He probably did. Well if he thought he was the only one who wanted to see The Outlaws perform live he was dead wrong.

Even if Stephanie wasn’t the biggest fan she wouldn’t say no to visiting a concert and getting a signed autograph be it as Batgirl or as her plain old self. She kind of really wanted their band-shirt too and obviously she wanted to ask them about their damn hair stylist.

“And here I thought Damian was the sneakiest of the robins, guess I thought wrong.” She said as she sighed and stood up from the chair she had been sitting on.

Tim looked hurt by what she had said. “Don’t compare me with that jerk.” He said as he pouted.

 

“Ohhh, watch it Tim, he has cameras installed all over the house.” A new female voice piped in.

It was Cassandra and she looked really tired but luckily she didn’t have any injuries (not like Tim’s anyway). They both greeted her with a smile.

“Hey Cass, you okay?” Tim said as Stephanie sat down on the couch next to him.

Cassandra moved to the sit on the couch too, luckily it was big enough for their whole family to fit on.

“I’m fine.” She said with a smile as she took in Tim’s appearance. “Better than you, that’s for sure.” The raven added with a smirk. Tim just sighed as Steph snorted.

The living room was taken over by a comfortable silence.

It was 1 in the morning and honestly for them that was relatively early. Cass coming back so ‘early’ really meant that it was a quiet night.

Eventually Cass broke the silence, that in itself was something new. “Heard you talking about The Outlaws.” She said as she positioned herself to face both Steph and Tim. They looked taken aback. She wasn’t sure if it was because she broke the silence, or if she surprised them by eavesdropping or maybe that she brought up the band.

Contrary to popular believes she too had hobbies, she liked music and yeah she too watched television shows and series. Also she read a lot of magazines and of course the Internet wasn’t new to her. Then there was also her love for turning on the radio whenever she was alone or training. So honestly, her knowing about The Outlaws shouldn’t have been such a surprise.

“Uh, yeah.” Tim said as he looked at Steph in question. The blonde haired girl shrugged in response.

Cass looked a bit at a loss of what to say next. She crossed her arms in a defensive move, looked away, then sighed and turned back to look at them. “I was just wondering if you two wanted to accompany me to their homecoming concert in New York.” She said in an even voice, but the small blush on her ivory skin betrayed her emotions.

It was quiet again for a while but then Stephanie lunged at Cassandra and the black haired girl almost jabbed her in the throat in a defensive movement but luckily – for Stephanie - she didn’t. They both fell over as Stephanie laughed genuinely, a huge smile on her face as she hugged the other woman. Cass looked at her in shock but then a small smile took over her face and she patted Stephanie on the head.

“That is a wonderful idea!” The blonde exclaimed loudly.

Finally a family trip, she had wanted one for ages. It wouldn’t be the full family obviously but this would be more than enough for her.

The last time they had gone on a family trip it was to the amusement park and honestly … that had been a disaster. Even Bruce had admitted that going out with the family to such an open public place wasn’t a good idea. Stephanie felt bad for leaving Barbara out but after shit went down (read: someone tried to pick a fight with the Wayne family but luckily Batman had showed them why exactly that was a bad idea) and they had gotten stuck in the roller coaster … in the loop … upside down … for hours … Yeah maybe it was good that Barbara hadn’t come.

That was a story for another time.

“What do you think, Tim?” Steph said as she released her unfortunate target for hugging and looked back at Tim.

His eyes were sparkling and if that wasn’t a definitive yes then she didn’t know what it was supposed to be.

“Please, do you even have to ask?” He said as he was already forming a plan in his head.

Asking Bruce, notifying Dick to come support Gotham while they were away, probably inviting Damian too even though he would most likely say no and of course getting the tickets before they were sold out (which would probably be really fast but hey he had his connections). Then they would have to make a reservation at a hotel or hire an apartment and of course transport and oh god he was way too excited about going out with Stephanie en Cassandra again.

Could this be considered a holiday? A mini-holiday maybe.

They had been at a comic con in New York once but when someone had groped Stephanie, Kara aka Supergirl had promptly broken his arm … Cass would have continued the legacy of breaking bones if Tim hadn’t stopped them both.

Basically they didn’t want to go there anymore.

But they had never been to a concert before, at least together. He was sure that Stephanie had been at plenty before – going by all the goodies she had - and he himself had been to some a couple of times (well actually more to operas and classical concerts because yeah he had an image to maintain).

He wasn’t sure about Cass, she kept a lot of things shrouded in mystery. Like her suggesting this was already a huge blow to the imago he had of her.

Cass sat up slowly and patted her own messy hair into place. “That’s settled then, I already have the tickets.” She said with a wink.

“You’re so sneaky Cassie.” Stephanie said as she moved to get her laptop from the table.

“Well considering Tim is totally obsessed with them …” Tim sputtered in protest. “I just really like their music, that’s all!” Cassandra ignored him as she continued. “… and I know that you would never miss the chance to go if offered.”

The blonde female nodded in understanding and threw Tim a leering look.

“Don’t worry Tim, I find them very appealing too, eye candy even. Especially the girl, right? Or do you prefer one of the guys?”

Tim covered his face with his hands as he made dying whale noises and muttered ‘no’ under his breath. He was probably blushing.

“So, want to start planning?”

 

* * *

 

 

One cup of coffee.

He had wanted to get one cup of coffee. Was that such a big thing? It probably was since one measly and annoying paparazzi was basically shoving the camera into his face.

Be nice, Jason. Stay calm, Jason.

He smiled at the man with a charming smile, his eyes covered by thick-rimmed black sunglasses and his hair by a black cap.

The flash went off and he all but swirled around to leave. One fucking picture was enough, wasn’t it? He didn’t want to attract any attention. He still kind off did … the way he was dressed.

He sipped on his coffee as he exited the small shop. Nothing was better than the coffee they made there.

Screw Starbucks.

And then he heard it. The shrill shriek, the gasps of surprise, the horror of every celebrity ever.

“Oh my fucking god, oh my god, oh my god. Is that Jackson Red?” A high-pitched girly voice rose in octaves behind him and he wondered how his eardrums hadn’t started bleeding when she ‘emitted’ his pseudonym from her mouth. Her revelation was followed by multiple gasps and whispers. Like if they talked any louder they would chase him away.

Honestly ladies that inhuman shriek had already chased him away mentally. Now he just had to get away physically.

“Can we get a picture with you, please?”

That was his cue to leave.

“I’m sorry ladies but I have very important business to attend to, as much as it hurts me to refuse.” He said in a flirty but staged way.

Like in most situations, that answer didn’t seem to work on one or two of the people. If he had been himself he would have probably punched someone by now. Hard. Preferably in the face.

The answer only seemed to make the girls more excited as it proved their assumptions. It was indeed Jackson Red.

For now he had to settle for running before they swarmed him, no matter how stupid that would look like.

Him, Jason Todd, a grown ass muscular man and trained assassin running away from high school girls. He could already see Talia scowling at him in disapproval.

Not that she would ever find out. But if she somehow did, she would probably tie him up and throw him to the dogs … well fans actually. 

He could hear the girls in the background, they didn’t sound happy, as he lunged for the alley at the end of the street while trying not to bump into anyone.

Maybe he needed that bodyguard after all. This had been the third time that week.

 

New York City’s alleys were just as every city, dirty and with a lot of garbage.

He easily climbed over the fence – not even dropping his coffee what about that huh? - that was separating the alley from another alley. Or maybe from private property? Who knew.

For now he sure hoped that nobody had made pictures of him running and then climbing the fence. He was pretty sure that the last part was punishable by law.

He proceeded to follow the street and found himself on a small square.

Seems like he had ended up at the back entrance of some living complex. Most likely the backdoor that they used to throw away the trash going by the smell and the differently colored waste containers.

There was a dark haired boy sitting on the stairs and Jason had to blink a couple of times. Damn that kid somehow reminded him of himself when he had been that age. Especially the black eye, bruised cheek and bleeding nose added to the effect of similarity.

The kid’s hazel colored eyes settled on him in a look of fear and damn life really loved fucking him over with sentimental shit. Then the look turned to a full-scale glare.

Whoever the kid had been expecting to see had better be Godzilla incarnate because damn that was one dirty glare.

“There’s nothing to steal here.” The boy said.

He was definitely Hispanic going by his accent. Looked to be around the age of 12 with an abusive father maybe since those injuries looked to be the result of a punch to the face, maybe a kick, probably a few. Or maybe other kids were bullying him, most likely older than him.

He was scrawny, looked underfed also the way he was dressed … definitely a street kid.

Seems like his detective skills would never leave him. Somehow that pissed him off.

“Do I look like a criminal to you, brat?” Jason said with a bite to his tone. Maybe a bit too much bite and aggression as the boy cringed and his glare wavered for but a second. But his moment of weakness passed by relatively quickly and he faced Jason again with his glare.

“Yes.” He simply stated.

“I bet you’re running away from the cops and that’s how you ended up here. Hope they catch you.” The boy added smugly.

“No wonder you got beaten up.” Good job Jason, why not pick on little kids?

A grimace settled on the face of the youth, the smugness completely gone. He seemed to contemplate what the weird stranger had said to him.

Jason decided that it was time to leave. There was no need to linger around, it would be even worse if people actually reported him because they thought he was a criminal. Just imagine the news.

“Don’t be all bark but no bite. If you want to stay a shitty little brat you better learn how to survive on the streets first.” Life lessons with Jason Todd every Friday afternoon on channel 5.

He took out his wallet from his pocket and the kid looked at him warily. Especially when Jason started approaching him he looked ready to dash. But when Jason shoved dollars into his face his eyes widened to the size of plates.

He looked from the money to Jason and back to the money again, then his eyes narrowed.

“I’m not gonna do any dirty work for you.” He spat out.

Jason had to laugh at that. Oh that was a good response, again one that would have gotten the brat a punch in the face.

He released the money from his hold and watched how it scattered to the ground. It was a thousand dollar in 10 bills of hundred each. Then he turned around to walk away, his form followed by surprised eyes.

“Hey wai-“ He didn’t let the kid finish his sentence.

“See ya brat, keep out of trouble, Santa Claus doesn’t come by every day.”

As he was making his way down the opposite alley he heard someone screaming: _“Santa Claus my ass, he doesn’t exist! Also it is April you stupid asshole! Santa Claus comes in December!”_

Jason took that as a thank you.

He had a huge grin on his face as he walked out on the main street and signaled for a cab.

Today had been a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sappy. Help. Feels.  
> I must say that out of all the stories I’ve written this one is my favorite. Also this is the fastest update I ever did.   
> Gonna try updating tomorrow/the day after tomorrow again but can’t promise anything! Promise the next chapter will actually have some singing ... maybe ... I have no plans for this story apart from making everyone have feels.   
> Thanks for the kudos! Support is always appreciated :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie, Cassandra and Tim are huge fangirls/fanboy and maybe a bit too lucky.  
> Jason is too unlucky.  
> An unexpected friendship is formed in the most ridicules and unexpected way.  
> Some Outlaws fluff/bonding (can you even call it that).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the songs used/mentioned in this chapter:  
> From Yesterday - 30 Seconds to Mars  
> Bleed it Out - Linkin Park
> 
> I have no idea why but apart from having fun writing this - I’m unhappy with this chapter, maybe I’m asking too much from myself?

_On a mountain he sits, not of gold but of shit, through the blood he can look, see the life that he took._

_From council of one he'll decide when he's done with the innocent_.

Jason’s voice rose evenly from a calm wavelength to a louder curl of the voice at the last word. He quickly continued singing the next lyrics and repeated them in a whisper.

_On his face is a map of the world._

_A map of the world…_

He repeated the previous two lyrics again, this time in a quieter voice. The Chorus of the song followed it next and Jason’s voice rose in strength and loudness, his voice gaining an edge even becoming raspy as he dragged the words and near screamed at some parts.

They were recording a new song and so far it had been the sixth try. Three of the tries had been Roy fucking up. He had broken a drumstick, which was ridicules. He hadn’t even broken one at a concert before so what the fuck. Luckily, the music director sitting behind the studios soundproof glass still looked as excited as ever.

When the last note of Kori’s guitar dropped together with Jason’s voice dying down from the scream on the word ‘here’, the director thumbed up at them and mouthed something that resembled ‘awesome’.

Guess they finally had it.

“Fucking, finally.” Jason exclaimed with a groan as he yanked those obnoxious headphones from his head. Just a minute more and his head would have been squashed like a tomato, seriously. He rubbed his red ears with a relieved sigh, damn that felt good.

“Good work guys!” Roy exclaimed as he got up from his chair and cracked his spine. He settled for doing small stretching exercises next.

“Can’t say the same about you Harper, what the hell was that leg tap? You broke my rhythm.” Their only female member said with a huff. She pulled the white guitar strap over her head, carefully as to not pull her hair and then placed the white lacquered guitar in its hold on the wall.

“Also that drumstick? You have some explaining to do.” She continued as she turned to him with a glare and crossed her arms.

“What can I say - shit happens.” The ginger male said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I mean look at you.” Jason whispered unhelpfully as he tried not to laugh at his own joke.

Roy looked at him with an offended face as he placed his hand on his heart. “Ouch. Jackson, you’re hurting my feelings!” He said dramatically.

Kori rolled her eyes as she walked to the table and retrieved her bottle of water. “Well I guess it isn’t so bad. I mean remember Bleed it Out? That was just painful …” She said as she covered her mouth with her hand and smiled. That was kind of embarrassing to remember.

Jason rubbed the back of his neck as he too smiled and even Roy put his fingers to his temples as he shook his head in disbelief.

“Why did you have to bring that up? We agreed that we would never bring up that disaster.” Roy said as he laughed and put back his trucker hat on his unruly ginger hair.

“Well I thought it was a good time, considering this is our record time.”

Jason turned his eyes up in thought. “Now that you mention it.” He said as he beamed at them. “We should celebrate, Kori pass me a bottle.”

“We are gonna celebrate! Remember we have a concert tonight.” Kori piped in a she threw a bottle of water to Jason that he caught with ease.

“Guess we can bring that up? Sure the fans will care … also Smith said we need to replace Last Resort with this new one so guess that’s settled.” Roy added as he too signaled for Kori to pass him a bottle.

Jason gave him a weird look. “Are you her message boy or something?”

The ginger just winked at him as he too caught the bottle that was thrown at him.

“Gross.” Both Kori and Jason said, their faces scrunched in disgust.

“I was just kidding, holy shit guys!” He exclaimed loudly in defense as he threw a drumstick at Jason with inhuman precision.

The dark-haired male barely dodged it and they all laughed as he screamed ‘hey, watch it’ at Roy.

 

* * *

 

“Ahhh, I’m so damn excited!” Exclaimed Stephanie as she punched Tim in the biceps a couple of times. It was now two months later and finally; tonight would be the long awaited concert.

They had arrived in New York City yesterday and had wandered around the city to sightsee. It had been amazing and the day was filled with laughter, happiness and a lot of picture making – that Steph randomly send to the family at home, so far Dick had been to only one to respond - as they goofed around and wandered the big city. They had even visited the national museum, the MoMA and of course walked across the central park and that hadn’t even been all.

Bruce had insisted on paying for everything and they had been placed in a fancy hotel with a personal driver. None of them could complain but still they actually had wanted to keep it simple.

Damian had refused to go with them saying something like ‘who the hell would even go to that crap’ but they all believed that he simply didn’t want to leave Bruce’s side since all of them would be gone for the weekend. He’d probably jump at any other opportunity to go out with them but he was way too responsible for his own good.

Tim cringed back at the abuse and rubbed his bicep. “Calm down.” He muttered but his eyes betrayed that he was feeling the same as she. It was currently 11 am, the concert would start around 9 pm so they had plenty of time left.

Cassandra finally exited the shop she had been in and they took off towards their hotel by foot. There was no need to bother the driver for such small distances and they also wanted to use the infamous underground system of the city.

The subway hadn’t earned its infamous status … yeah they had stopped a robber, saw a lot of weird people (not level Arkham weird but different) and exited the subway system with a light heart but damn after Gotham this seemed safe to them.

When they approached their hotel they all looked taken aback for a second. It was swarming with people in front of the entrance. They held posters and signs and some were screaming. It was really rowdy …

“Wow, how are we going to get through that?” Tim said as Stephanie snapped out of her shock by closing her mouth. Cassandra on the other hand was looking to the other side of the street.

“I’m not sure if we are really lucky or if my calculations are incorrect.” The raven said as she looked at a black SUV with tinted windows that was driving in the direction of the hotel entrance. It was moving slowly through the crowd, trying not to drive anyone over which proved rather difficult as people threw themselves on the car.

“That is either the president or our special guests for tonight.” She finished as she turned to smirk at them. “Lets go find out.”

 

Pushing through the crowd was a harder task than it had seemed. “Comon Timbo, if you can’t handle this how are you going to handle going into a mosh pit?” Stephanie said loudly, trying to rise over the cheering and screaming so that Tim could hear her.

The dark haired male rolled his eyes as he pushed through a group of girls, saying sorry as they threw him a glare that didn’t last for long as they took in his appearance. Their attitude turned flirty as they told him that it was okay. … He would never get used to female attention no matter how much of a Wayne he had become.

“I think we should go inside, we can see from there.” Cassandra exclaimed as she grabbed Tim’s hand and dragged him behind the path Stephanie was creating. It looked so easy the way she moved through the crowd, looking for the perfect opening. Steph really had experience with this…

Soon they were at the entrance, considering they were guests – correction very important Wayne family guests – they were let into the hotel lobby.

“Privileges, bitches!” Stephanie said with a cackle as people were glaring at them.

They could now perfectly see the red carpet that stretched through the opened glass doors and reached across the stairs towards the road. Fences separated the road and bodyguards guarded them so that nobody would climb over or shove the fences inwards. Paparazzi were already waiting and some looked at them in contemplation before settling back on the road as the car finally arrived at the final destination.

 

“Roy! How could you spill tortilla dip over my pants!” Kori hissed as her hair burned brightly like fire and her eyes turned deathly glowing green.

The ginger in question moved farther away from the seething female. “I’m sorry! I didn’t expect that girl to jump against the window.” He said as he covered his face in defense as the woman lunged forward to probably scratch his eyes out.

“Don’t burn me! I’m sorry!” He cried out as she lifted her hand that was surrounded by a pink glow.

“Let it go, Kori. We’re almost there anyway, we can throw him to the masses.” Jason said as he turned his eyes from looking out the window. He looked like the devil, smirking and the dark shadow lingering on his face. He too had a big tortilla stain on his white shirt.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Roy screamed in horror, knowing damn well that his friends would do exactly that.

He cringed when another person jumped at the car. They had finally arrived at the entrance of the hotel.

“Please mistress Kori, master Jason, I’ll be a good boy.” He said as he lifted his hands above his head and put them together as if he was praying.

Kori’s hair calmed down and her eyes returned to their normal state. She smirked as she looked at Jason and he smirked back.

Before Roy could react, Jason unlocked the door behind Roy with the remote in front of him and the door automatically started opening, startling the people standing there. They hadn’t expected to door to open from the opposite side.

“Don’t.” Roy wheezed as Kori leered at him.

“Bye, bye.” She said with a mischievous wave and a wink as she pushed him in the chest and out of the car with her above average strength. He struggled to stay upright and in the car but was eventually dragged out by fans.

Loud cheers, screaming and whistling could be heard and Kori quickly turned around to get out on the ‘safe’ side of the car. They could hear Roy sputtering and telling people to let him down, some bodyguards ran to the other side in confusion.

Jason high-fived Kori as he helped her out of the car and onto the red carpet, they laughed sadistically at each other as the fans roared and the paparazzi came to live. They quickly switched on their celebrity mode as they smiled with their dazzling smiles and white teeth and waved at the fans and cameras.

They signed an autograph here and there and took pictures with some fans. Screw the tortilla stains, it would be an amazing story to tell.

Eventually they saw how three bodyguards tried to stop a guy from climbing over the fence. He had no shirt and on his chest was written: KORI ANDERS I LOVE YOU MARRY ME – in bright red letters. Probably lipstick.

Even the other fans looked creeped out as they too tried to drag him back.

Jason saw in the corner of his eyes how Roy was being escorted to another entrance with a lot of resistance from the crowd. He nudged Kori and the woman had to stop herself from snorting.

Finally they had gotten rid of that horrible trucker hat.

Meanwhile in the crowd someone clutched the poor hat to his chest as he showed off to the rest.

 

“Holy mother of jesus, we are so lucky.” Stephanie said as she jumped up and down as she saw Kori Anders and Jackson Red get out of the car. The other guy – Roy Harper – wasn’t with them it seemed. As you could see she had done some research on them. Of course Tim had blabbered about them all week so that even added to her knowledge.

“I can’t believe we’re staying in the same hotel as they are.” Tim said in a whisper as he looked down in awe. How could he not have known this important information? He had a feeling their adoptive dad knew about this. He would hug the shit out of Bruce when they would get home.

Even Cass looked ecstatic. “Wonder if we can talk to them to get an autograph and a photo.”

Steph rubbed her chin in thought. “We’ll probably get pushed away by the bodyguards but we can always try? I mean we’re not some creeps like that guy …” She said as she pointed at the shirtless guy with the red text on him that tried to climb over the fences. That was really creepy and unnecessary.

“I really wonder where the third member is.” The blonde woman said in thought as the two other members of The Outlaws walked closer and closer to the entrance.

Tim looked at the car and scanned the crowd, seeing how a ruckus was happening on the far right. “I think I might have an idea where he is. The questions remains why is he there.” Even Cassandra lifted her eyebrow as she too noticed the ruckus.

They didn’t have long to ponder about the unfortunate soul as the doors were opened and the sound from outside burst into the building.

Tim’s breath hitched as he saw those two flawless people ascending the stairs. They looked like gods, powerful and perfect, and holy cow they both were way taller than he could have ever imagined them to be. Especially the girl was ridiculously tall.

Also … were those tortilla dip stains?

“Close your mouth Tim, you’re drooling.” Stephanie said as she nudged him with her elbow.

“I’m not.” He retorted back, scowling at her.

They just stood there for a while, waiting for the two celebs to enter the hotel. When they eventually did – after a good 10 minutes – Tim was surprised to see that no bodyguards followed them inside. Instead people guarded the door, only letting in hotel guests from now on, as they closed and others hurried into the crowd.

“That went better than expected.” A silky woman voice said which earned her a groan from the man walking next to her.

 

“I’m going to get seizures from those flashes one day, mark my words.” Jason said to pipe down Kori’s never ending optimism. He had wanted to use the backdoor but as you could see … they hadn’t. He then noticed three people standing at the sides. Two women and one boy … man? He abruptly stopped.

Holy fucking shit.

His brain was screaming at him but he couldn’t move from his spot.

What the fuck.

He knew that guy? He fucking knew him. How could he forget? Who was it?

His brain was screaming danger and fire. He cringed at the headache and reached for his head.

Who was he? He seemed so familiar …

That thought didn’t calm him down at all but when he heard Kori’s worried voice asking him if he was okay he decided that now was not the time to freak out and ruin his image, especially because the three strangers were looking at him with worry too. He locked up those thoughts for later, pushing away the green, his pit-mad 17-year-old self would have been proud of him.

“See I fucking told you, seizures.” He bit out as he rubbed his temples.

The fire haired woman raised her eyebrow but decided not to question him any further. Then she too turned to the three young adults. They looked to be around their ages.

Who was the one that had gotten Jason so riled up a moment ago?

There was a girl that had a pretty face with Asian features and black short hair, behind her was standing a handsome male with equal dark hair. His eyes were the prettiest shade of blue and shone brightly.

She decided that he was a cutie as her eyes scanned the last person. It was a girl with wavy blonde hair but that wasn’t what really caught her attention. It was the grey t-shirt the girl was wearing. It had Starfire written on it in purple letters and a star was separating the words Star and Fire.

Kori gasped in surprise. “Oh my god, I have the exact same t-shirt as you!” She exclaimed as she approached the girl, opening her leather black jacket to show. The shirt was from a young unknown designer but Kori loved the simple designs he made, he even made their band shirts.

The three strangers looked startled but then the blonde girl looked down at her attire and beamed.

“Seriously? I love this brand!” She said as she pulled at the shirt to emphasize her point.

“Yes, me too! You really made my day, sis.” The tall woman – she was towering over all of them now that she stood next to them - said excited. 

Jason stood there in disbelief, he was this close to face palming … and just leaving actually but someone in the lobby had to approach him for a damn autograph

 

Stephanie’s face couldn’t relax from the huge grin that was plastered on it. “It would be a honor if you could sign it for me.”

“My pleasure! What’s your name?” The celebrity asked with a smile as she retrieved a marker from her pocket. It opened with a loud pop.

“Stephanie. Stephanie Brown.” She said hurriedly.

The fire haired woman nodded as she moved closer to write on the shirt. Stephanie held her breath as the marker moved over her stomach.

“You want something on the back too?” Kori Anders said, looking upwards from her half crouch.

Her eyes were an unnatural lime green and they shone! That was so amazing … Stephanie thought to herself.

“If that isn’t too much to ask.” She finally said. “Oh and would you mind giving my friends autographs too? As you can see they are very shy.” She added with a smirk as Tim groaned at her angrily and Cassie just stood there nodding her head.

Kori laughed as she waited for Stephanie to turn around. Her grey shirt now held black letters that wrote ‘ From the Outlaws to Stephanie Brown. Love, Kori Anders’ in neat handwriting and added were some stars and swirls. “Awesome.” Steph muttered to herself as she turned around.  
“Oh, why don’t we let Jackson sign your back. He can also sign for you friends.” The woman said in thought as she turned to the man in question who was currently making pictures with a Chinese couple. “Come on, hunk give my friends some love when you’re done.”

 

When she turned back she saw how the three fans – she guessed she could call them that – were beaming at that proposition and probably at the ‘friend’ part.

Jason would beat the shit out of her later for this; he could already tell she was doing this to spite him.

No she isn’t, Jason – something said in the back of his head.

“Sure.” He simply said, cracking a smile as he said his goodbye to the couple. Was harder than he liked to admit.

He signed the back of the blonde girl, patted her on the back and could practically see her swoon. He was about to move to the Asian looking girl after Kori had signed on her notebook but was interrupted by someone angrily exclaiming their last names.

“ANDERS, RED, I’m going to murder the shit out of both of you.” Their manager angrily hissed at them as she approached them. “You immature little shits.” She added.

Everyone in the lobby looked surprised and startled but when the silence was broken by laughing, everyone seemed to relax. Some people looked annoyed and others murmured something to their partners. 

Kori and Jason both started laughing after their initial shock.

“I think we did you a favor, we got rid of that truck hat.” Kori said with a shrug as she moved to sign for the cutie, his name was Tim Drake she had found out and she kind of wanted to kiss him on the cheek to freak him out some more.

Ah, what the hell. She did just that, leaving a dark lipstick print on his cheek.

He blushed madly as he stammered and she laughed at him.

“Yeah, one of a thousand.” Their manager said tiredly as she rubbed the bridge of her nose then she noted that they had been signing … probably some rich and important kids else they wouldn’t have been able to get into the hotel.

“Oh, I’m sorry for that outburst just now, I didn’t want to startle anyone.” Smith said with a professional smile. “I’m their manager and I guess you’re staying here too?”

Jason rolled his eyes at her, once a sucker for money always a sucker for money. He finished signing for the girl: name Cassandra Cain. Only the problematic guy was left …

The blonde girl nodded her head as the conversation between herself, Kori and Ms. Smith continued. Seems like they were going to their concert later.

Well shit, Jason thought, don’t get friendly with them.

“What’s your name, kid?” He asked the guy with the ridicules blue eyes that reminded him of … no, they reminded him of no one.

The kid squirmed under his gaze, Jason had to refrain from snorting. That lipstick mark on his cheek looked adorable.

“Tim Drake.”

All hell broke lose a second later for Jason as realization dawned on him.

Nope, I’m out. Goodbye cruel world. I would like to thank fate for always being a backstabbing bitch and for karma always being there to support her by fucking me up the ass and of course luck being a piece of shit.

Please Jason, don’t start hyperventilating and going batshit crazy now. Did he just think about bats?

He was done for.

Oh fuck it, he thought as he signed for his fucking replacement. The one that had replaced him, replaced him as Robin almost immediately after he had died. Talia had told him enough even if he didn’t want to hear it and now he knew why the male seemed so familiar. He had seen fucking pictures of him. He had grown but after hearing that name … it was undoubtedly him.

He was seething with anger and so many other emotions, his mind screamed murder at him but on his face was a professional smile as he finished signing.

He was good, he was over it.

He was okay.

The word okay resounded in his head like an echo.

“I’ll excuse myself, I really want to take a shower.” He said after a little gnashing of teeth. Then he turned around, retrieved the keys from Smith, she reminded him that the sound check would be in 2 hours and then he left.

He was so **not** okay.

 

Tim looked at the retreating figure of Jackson. He looked a bit out of it after Tim had said his own name. Somehow even angry …

Weird, he thought as he turned his attention back to the happily chattering Stephanie and Kori Anders. Even the manager of The Outlaws looked at the blonde girl in interest – she most definitely had heard the name Wayne - and then asked Cassandra something startling the girl for a moment, VIP tickets if he heard correctly and something about an acting career?

He probably shouldn’t ponder on it too much but something didn’t seem right …

“That. Was. AMAZING.” A new voice screamed through the lobby, yet again startling everyone.

There you had the third member of the band, Roy Harper, a dirty torn wife beater barely hung on his muscular form and his face and arms were covered in make up stains, mainly lipstick, and his usual green tattoos.

He took a picture with three girls as they hugged him and then Kori Anders sighed as the guy jogged to them.

“It was useless.” She whispered.

“I’m so doing that again.” He muttered excitedly but his excitement quickly died down as he noticed the glaring Ms. Smith.

“You can’t possibly murder me with this much witnesses.” Roy said smugly.

“I have my ways.” The middle-aged woman answered as she adjusted her glasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhhhhh! Poor Jason, he tried so hard and got so far ... but in the end it doesn’t even matter :’D  
> That could be a good ‘new song’ for them EHEHEH.  
> And sorry with the kind of cliche way of making the characters meet, I just really wanted to create a lasting image - also freak Jason out a bit and maybe even make them meet up again in the hotel - maybe even Kori becoming friends with Steph. They sure have a lot of style to talk about... and I feel bad for Kori not having any female friends.  
> Ms Smith ... yeah ... I don’t even know what to say.  
> Also, don’t worry, I won’t rush with the finding out of identity. I want to see Jason suffer first.  
> That sounds really mean but hey. Tim is too starstruck at the moment :’)  
> Next will be the concert! (probably, it was supposed to be this chapter already but as you can see that didn’t happen either)  
> Wonder if everything will go smoothly?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited concert.  
> Outlaws family bonding time before that and also some bat family bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter damn!  
> Songs used for this chapter:  
> Centuries - Fall Out Boys  
> The Phoenix - Fall Out Boys  
> Burn it Down - Linkin Park  
> Bleed it Out - Linkin Park  
> Castle of Glass - Linkin Park  
> Immortals - Fall Out Boys  
> Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the texts/songs they are purely used for fiction purposes. 
> 
> Wanted to add way more but hey I’ll just imagine those 26 songs in my head :’D  
> Tried to keep the concert short as you can see but that didn’t really work out so feel free to skip reading the lyrics.  
> Like I said if you want them to sing other songs/styles you’re free to imagine whatever and change it for yourself mentally ;)  
> Enjoy!

“Jason? Roy?”

Nobody responded.

Kori looked worried as she opened the door further and put on the lights to the luxurious suite that was way too big for one person.

I had almost been 2 hours since they arrived and that meant that soon they would have to leave for their sound check at the arena. After that they would get dressed, get their make-up and hair done and do some other preparations like tuning their guitars for the different songs.

They tended to discuss the show with each other too, no matter how many times they did it, it would always be a whole experience and they would be nervous and giddy to get on stage so talking to each other always helped to relax.

She walked into the living room and just like her own room next door this one had an amazing view of the city and Central Park.

“What is it Jaybird, is that all you got?” Roy piped from upstairs, it seemed like this suite had another floor, his voice cracking so that he had to cough to get it normal again. His taunt was followed by a familiar groan.

Kori had told him about Jason acting weird when they had entered the lobby and how he had walked away angry. Roy was just as unconvinced as she was with the ‘seizures’ excuse the dark haired male had come up with. Still Roy had convinced Kori that it would be better if she left him alone for a bit. In those situations he really needed to calm down. It would only be worse if there was someone that he would take his anger and madness out on. He would regret doing that eventually, especially if it was Kori.

They both weren’t feeling it for the whole guilt-trip afterwards because Jason looked like a kicked puppy that was angry and disappointed in himself. That always broke their hearts but it seemed like Roy had still decided to take the burden upon himself.

They couldn’t leave Jason alone while he was like that anyway. If Roy hadn’t gone, Kori would have.

He had rushed upstairs as soon as they were done talking and since then Kori hadn’t seen Jason nor Roy. She was starting to get worried.

After she had talked with the interesting people from before, Stephanie, Cassandra and Tim, and left them with Ms. Smith – who didn’t seem to be quit done with them yet – she had gone upstairs. That was around 40 minutes after Roy had left.

She had taken a shower, even washed and dried her hair. Another 30 minutes.

Then after pacing and exploring her hotel suite for another 15 minutes she had decided that she had enough of guessing and waiting. For all she knew Jason had already killed Roy, she wouldn’t be surprised if he had. With Jason’s anger issues added with the aftermath of the pit … yeah that wasn’t pretty most of the times.

Luckily Roy was alive.

There was scuffling upstairs and the sound of things breaking. That wasn’t a good sign. She hurried upstairs almost tripping in the process.

“Wow! Hey! Did you just try to hit me in the face!” Roy’s voice said again.

If they are fighting … I swear to god I will throw them out the window myself this time, Kori thought as she reached the last step.

That was how it had ended the previous time, Jason throwing Roy out the window. It had only been the second floor that time so the ginger had gotten away with mild injuries (and a few broken bones). But they had a concert in like 6 hours so injuries were a big no today.

She threw open the door as she barged into the room. “Stop it!” She screamed.

There was a silence and even Kori looked taken aback as her arm slid down the door. Two pairs of eyes looked at her in surprise.

“… Uhm okay?” Roy said as he lowered his arms and put the game on pause with the Wii remote in his hand. Jason looked at Kori with a lifted eyebrow, questions lingering on his lips that she could so easily read from his eyes. He too was holding a Wii remote.

Her eyes settled on the enormous television screen on the other side of the room. On the screen stood ‘Paused’ with giant letters … they were playing Super Smash Bros? Really?

She slumped to the floor with a relieved and tired sigh. “You guys …” She muttered as she shook her head. She probably looked like an idiot.

Roy and Jason looked at each other in question.

“You okay, Kori?” Jason asked eventually as he walked over to her and reached out his hand to help her get up from the floor. She gladly took it and he easily pulled her up.

“I should be the one to ask.” Kori said as she looked them over, suspicion clearly visible in her eyes. “What was that downstairs, I thought you …” She didn’t finish and instead just settled for looking away as she chewed on her lip.

“Went pit-mad again?” Jason finished for her and her eyes snapped up to look at him in accusation.  
“That is not what I was referring to.” She stated as she took in his appearance. He looked ruffled, his hair was a mess but he was calm. There was no crazy hue or edge to his eyes.

“Kori, we discussed this before.” Jason said as he squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I have this under control.”

“Well apart from the anger management issues sometimes.” He continued. Then added with a laugh, “And the aggression mostly accompanied with sass.”

“And the bashing sprees. Also being trigger-happy.” Roy added as he shut down the Wii-console.

“Thanks Roy.” Jason said as he rolled his eyes. “Should have punched you harder.”

“So you did fight!” Kori exclaimed in unbelief as she squeezed Jason’s hand way harder than he had before. The dark haired male cringed but didn’t retract his hand.

Roy threw Kori a half-smile. “Well he needed it. Then we settled for playing Wii.” The redhead didn’t go into details but Kori didn’t need those to know what had happened, she saw the broken lamp and the overthrown couch. She sighed as she released Jason’s hand, for which he was grateful.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

“So what exactly triggered you?” The fire haired woman asked carefully, looking if Jason was okay with it. His face looked grim but at least there was no anger.

It had something to do with Tim Drake. She had noticed from the corner of her eye how the gears worked in his head when he was signing for him. She also saw how he was looking at him … Basically like he wanted to put a bullet through his head. He had smeared it away with a professional smile but she saw. No matter how hard he would try to hide his emotions she could always read him.

“Do we have to talk about this now?” The man that was being questioned said as he pulled his hand through his messy hair.

Kori looked at Roy.

“I don’t push, you know me. If he had wanted to tell me he would have.” The ginger said with a shrug.

That was a lie, Roy pushed when he had to. The thing was, the last couple of years nothing had triggered Jason. He wasn’t as angry and mad as he used to be when they first met. He gained some control over himself.

“Jason …” Kori said as she hugged the man. She was a bit taller than him so the hug was rather awkward for him. “We are your family, we will always be here for you.” She said as she nuzzled him in her arms like he was an overgrown cat.

Jason found that her approach was a cunning one and that the words she picked were straight manipulative.

It didn’t take him long to break and spill the beans.

“That guy.” He breathed and she released him from her bear hug as she looked him straight in the eye. “He’s the new robin.”

“Was the new robin after me. My replacement.” He added eventually to clear up the situation. He knew that now there were already other Robins after Tim Drake.

Both Kori and Roy knew about his past life and how he was replaced after he had died. Batman hadn’t even taken vengeance on the Joker for killing him.

When Jason finally had opened up to them with his story they had felt their blood boil in anger at those parts. Batman was an asshole, they had thought back then and even now they still thought that.

“Oh Jason.” Kori said as she hugged him again, her eyes filled with grief, rubbing his smooth black hair this time. Even Roy looked sad as he approached the hugging pair.

How to not make this awkward and painful? He thought as he settled for placing his hands on both their shoulders. They stood like that for a while.

“Forget about the old times. We have a new life now, we are different people. I know that at times it hurts and haunts but that’s part of growing up.” Roy said with a sad smile on his face. “So suit up, lets go proof ourselves that our past will not stop us from reaching our future. We have come so far, we worked so hard; this was our dream.” He continued as he patted them both on their shoulders. “So grasp it with two hands and pull yourself up. Don’t let the fans down.” He finished with a genuine smile this time around.

Kori looked at him with a warm expression and he could see how her eyes were watering. Jason looked alive and pumping with energy, like he could go for another thousand years.

“What the hell, Roy.” The raven said with a smile. “That was a hella good motivational speech.”

 

* * *

 

The sound check had gone well, no trouble at all. The people in the arena were surprised to find out that working with the three young artists was a pleasant experience. They were humble and glad to help out wherever they could.

The preparations went smoothly and quickly and there was no tension at all before the concert. Luckily no diva bitching either.

They had gotten their make-up done, their hair, even got dressed already. People had to admit that even without that all the three looked dashing and cool but after the concert beautification they looked even better.

The make-up wasn’t anything special, just the usual powder for the guys and for Kori a bit more eye and lip work. It did the trick though.

The hair was just a styled version of their normal styles but Kori settled for a ponytail. Last concert she had pulled her hair rather hard when trying to change guitar’s fast and that had left her mentally crying for days. Hurt like a bitch.

Now their clothes weren’t as casual as normal but they still represented their daily styles. Jason settled for full black like always, promptly refusing to wear white, he thought that was Kori’s color. Kori indeed wore a white attire but with hints of purple. Roy settled for red and black.

They were tuning their instruments and Kori was working with the keyboard as Ms. Smith came in. She wished them good luck as she went backstage to bitch at the lightning technicians because she didn’t like the light on stage.

Jason looked into the empty arena. It was big, around 20 000 people could fit, but not the biggest stage they had been on. The thing was, this would be the most famous arena they had been on. In just a measly hour it would be filling with their fans from New York or maybe somewhere else in America or hell even from another country. It would be filled to the brim with people who came to see them.

A happy smile settled on his face. Damn that was a good thought.

He could already tell that people were gathering at the entrance, wanting to get in first. The arena was divided in a few sections. You could be standing right in front of the stage or at the far back or upstairs in the tribunals.

The concert would be around 3 hours with the pauses included. They would do 32 songs total but if they had time left they would do 1 or 2 more. Of course that also depended on how they felt and how much time talking and ‘fanservice’ would take.

He was really looking forward to it.

Misses Smith came back with the poor technician, he looked on the verge of strangling her.

Roy stood up from the stage he had been sitting on, muttering something under his breath as he played his black guitar with blue stripes. Seemed like it was time that they did some voice exercises.

  

As soon as Tim set foot outside of the car he was taken over by a surge of unbelief. He still couldn’t believe he would actually get to be at a concert of one of his favorite bands together with two members of his superhero family. And that would be in less than 30 minutes.

On top of that they had met the band members personally and apart from the singer acting a bit weird (but damn he was so handsome up close) they were still so godly, nice and unreachable to Tim.

After the other two other band members had rushed off they moved to the hotel bar. Kori and Stephanie had hit it off rather well and the tall woman had promised to take the blonde girl to her hairstylist. They even exchanged phone numbers and then made a picture to post on instagram. They couldn’t get over the fact that they wore the same shirt, on the same day, it had to be some kind of fate that brought them together.

Well apart from that it seemed like they had a lot of mutual interest and they didn’t want to part but the manager of the band had told the artist to relax in her room before the show. She didn’t argue as she said her goodbyes and left.

Tim somehow wished that Jackson hadn’t left…

Now the other part was the band’s manager showing interest in them, Tim was sure that it wasn’t only a showbiz thing it seemed like the woman actually knew their adoptive dad Bruce Wayne and somehow knew of Tim and Cassandra too. She was really interested in them which was rather worrying but at the same time flattering.

Still he just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Meeting the band personally, them being so human and nice and damn. Their manager even gave them VIP tickets what the hell. How lucky were they?

Now he honestly had no idea what VIP tickets were but Stephanie had acted like it was a huge deal and even Cassandra looked ecstatic – as much as she could. He thought it was basically just standing all the way in the front, like a VIP zone. Stephanie had laughed in his face when he said that and helpfully said that he would see eventually. Cassandra wasn’t helpful either.

He decided that he would wait and see.

He snapped out of his trance to see Stephanie and Cassandra waving at him from the entrance. When did they even get there?

“Earth to Timothy Drake.” Stephanie taunted when he had joined them.

“Really funny Steph.” He said as he followed them through the doors. There were already a lot of people outside but inside it was swarming.

Cassandra suddenly stopped and he nearly bumped into her. “What is it Cassie?” Stephanie asked as she too stopped.

“The queue is there…” She said as she pointed to the long queue of people. Tim had to stop himself from cringing. That was one long queue.

“Looks like fun.” Tim said with sarcasm as they walked there reluctantly. “Would be fun having a mosh pit with them now.” Stephanie said with an evil glint to her eyes.

“They will eat you alive.” Cassie said with a smirk on her face. Stephanie looked at her with a challenge. “We’ll see about that.”

 

Once they were finally inside after a good 15 minutes – and Stephanie had gotten them all band shirts, he honestly hadn’t even noticed her leave – they had quickly wrestled their way to the front with the guidance of the blonde girl. They were now standing right in front of the podium.

The arena was filling up quickly and Tim felt the surge of energy. No wonder people liked concerts, it was a whole different experience. There were so much people it was kind of suffocating but at the same time comfortable.

The stage looked rather nice, he could see the electronic screens surrounding the background of the stage and the stage itself was big. On stage was a keyboard, three different guitars –two electronic ones, one completely white and the other black with hints of blue and a red bass –, three microphones, a drumkit and if he saw correctly there was also a purple electric violin.

They didn’t have to wait long as the lights went off, the voices in the arena died down and so did the music that had been playing in the background silently. Nothing happened for a moment and some people started screaming and whistling, getting rowdy as they cheered for the band to come on.

A female voice resounded through the arena then, she was repeating a small melody, even singing it. People cheered harder as her melody increased in volume. There was still no music but her voice sounded like an eerie lullaby. Seemed like they had started but the lights on stage remained off adding to the eerie feeling of the voice.

Tim could feel himself shiver in anticipation and Stephanie gave him a playful push. Cassandra seemed to be in awe as she laughed at Stephanie.

Then there was the sound of a guitar amp getting turned on, causing a high-pitched screeching sound. The female voice died away and someone started playing on the guitar and the keyboard, a familiar male voice sounded above both of the instruments, he wasn’t singing alone: the female voice from before and another male voice supported him.

_Some legends are told, some turn to dust or to gold. But you will remember me._

_Remember me for centuries._

_And just one mistake, is all it will take_

_We’ll go down in history …_

More sounds and instruments joined then and when they finally were done with the intro and started singing the ‘hey’ part the superhero could feel himself get drowsy as he listened to a song he had heard so often. Live it was even better and when the lights went on he thought he would either faint or scream. He did neither.

_Mummified my teenage dreams_

_No, it's nothing wrong with me_

_The kids are all wrong_

_The story's all off_

_Heavy metal broke my heart._

The word ‘heart’ was sung rather high and Tim wondered for a moment how high Jackson’s voice could go. It looked so damn easy for him. He stood on the stage like a boss, dressed in black and holding his equal black guitar. He had no trouble with playing the guitar AND singing. Kori was on the keyboard and Roy was on the drums and they too sang along.

Tim had to remind himself how to breathe, this was really a dream come true for him. He looked at his companions.

Stephanie was singing along with all her might and Cassandra too was murmuring the lyrics. He knew it … they were such fangirls.

He loved the text of the song and yet again wondered how Jackson thought them up. He especially loved the chorus.

 

The song ended way too quickly for his liking.

“Hello New York City! How are you doing?” Jackson’s voice resounded through the arena as he questioned the public in high spirits. “Are you excited?”

He got a roaring answer as the crowd cheered and answered.

“I’m glad to hear that, oh boy are we excited ourselves.” The singer said with a laugh as he put down his guitar and took the microphone in his hand instead of letting it hang in the holder. “We had such a great time around the world. Especially Beijing gave us a warm welcome. What about you guys, will you outdo them?!” He exclaimed the last part extra loudly to get the crowd cheering and roaring again. He sure knew how to get the crowd excited.

“That’s the spirit!” He said with a cunning smirk. Then Kori and Roy said their hellos and the crowd beamed.

“Now I’m sure you all saw the program and know what’s coming …” Jackson said with a pout of the lips. “I mean does someone have the program for me …? I don’t know what song is next.” The crowd laughed and responded positively as he spoke. He walked to the edge of the podium and grabbed one of the program schedules handed to him.

“What’s your name?” He asked the person he took the pamphlet from and sat down on the stage. “Hey! That’s my way of picking up girls!” Roy said from the background and everyone laughed again.  
“I’m just jesting, thank you Rose you can have back your schedule now.” Jackson said with a smile as he quickly signed it and handed it back to the ecstatic looking girl. She jumped around and screamed and people yet again cheered.

“Well then lets get started!”

Kori had taken the purple violin and started playing a tune on it and Jackson jogged back to the center of the stage and quickly put back his microphone and grabbed his guitar.

**_Put on your war paint!_ **

After Jackson had sung those words, Roy joined the song with his drums and the singer himself started playing on the guitar. The song started rather monotonous with the intro but after the first part, the violin added more depth with a changed melody. Then before the chorus hit only the violin and the relaxed near whispering voice was left.

_So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked_

_One maniac at a time we will take it back_

Then the voice picked up in volume again and regained an edge as he sung the next part. Then the rest of the instruments joined again for the amazing chorus.

_Hey young blood_

_Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?_

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix._

_Wearing our vintage misery._

_No, I think it looked a little better on me._

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix._

Jackson all the while worked for the public and yet again dragged his voice insanely high on the word ‘phoenix’. Kori had her eyes closed for a while as she played on the violin but when she opened them they looked happy. Roy looked to be enjoying himself in the background as he went wild on the drums.

 

* * *

 

Eventually one of Tim’s favorite songs came and by that time he was already so gone with keeping himself in check. He was singing along and jumping and just enjoying himself. Stephanie had jumped to join the mosh pits in the background, Tim and Cassie had settled for not doing that and just leaving the blonde girl to her own demise.

The song was a mix of Jackson’s softer voice without the edge and was a calm song compared to some others they had already sung. Kori was the one on the drums now and Roy was behind the keyboard as he rapped his part.

_You told me, "Yes"_

_You held me high_

_And I believed when you told that lie_

_I played soldier, you played king_

_And struck me down, when I kissed that ring_

_You lost that right, to hold that crown_

_I built you up, but you let me down_

_So when you fall, I'll take my turn_

_And fan the flames as your blazes burn_

Then Jackson’s soft voice took over again and gained an edge as he went into chorus.

 

The next song was another one with deep meaning and Tim felt himself listening and feeling the lyrics through the core of his being as he followed Jackson’s voice intently. This was such a great experience and he wondered how the hell the guys on stage weren’t tired yet.

In the background another mosh pit broke out after the rap died down and Jackson sung the chorus.

_I bleed it out digging deeper_

_Just to throw it away_

After repeating those phrases a few times he screamed the next part his voice husky.

_I've opened up these scars; I'll make you face this._

_I've pulled myself so far; I'll make you face this now!_

 

* * *

 

“Well guys, we have a special song. This will be our penultimate for tonight.” Jackson said with a hurt look on his face. The public objected loudly and the people on the stage nodded. “Lets make it worth it! Finish with a bang.” Kori said, emphasizing on the word bang as she made a gun with her hand and shot Roy who fake-died after being hit by Kori’s fake shooting.

“My favorite song.” Jackson said with a nostalgic expression.

Roy started playing on the drums silently and Jason took the bass guitar, Kori yet again settling for the keyboard.

Tim remembered this song and so did the other people in the arena it seemed. They had glow sticks and some people used their cellphones to stick up in the air.

_Take me down to the river bend; take me down to the fighting end._

_Wash the poison from off my skin; show me how to be whole again._

Jackson started singing, slowly and quietly. It sounded beautiful live and there was so much emotion. Tim had to stop himself from getting teary eyed.

_Fly me up on a silver wing, past the black where the sirens sing._

_Warm me up in a nova's glow and drop me down to the dream below._

Tim could really tell why this was Jackson’s favorite song as he sung the chorus. Those words held so much meaning to the singer, his voice slightly wavered as he sung.

_'Cause I'm only a crack in this castle of glass._

_Hardly anything there for you to see … for you to see._  

 

* * *

 

_'Cause we could be immortals, immortals_

_Just not for long, for long._

_And live with me forever now,_

_You pull the blackout curtains down_

_Just not for long, for long._

_We could be …_

Jackson’s voice dragged the word immortals in the new text making it sound magical. The last song was Immortals from the band’s new album and just as Kori said they finished with a bang. The song was perfect for the ending and also perfect for their lives in Gotham he thought. Especially at the moment…

Stephanie was clinging to Tim for dear life as she cried buckets and tried to sing along, sounding hoarse and failing miserably. He had no idea when she had gotten drunk and even Cassie looked different than usual as she wiped her nose and held her glow stick high.

Seems like today had been a day of revelations, a lot of luck and surprises. Basically today had been a very good day.

Tim smiled at that as he hugged back Steph with one hand and wrapped his other around Cassandra’s shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised! The concert was in this chapter. Nothing happened ... weird eh? Don’t worry there will always be time for some misery in Jason’s life later.  
> Next chapter basically.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kori and Roy do something really stupid.  
> Barbara, with the help of Tim, does too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit goes down in this chapter. (finally)  
> Get ready for a feeltrip. Things are getting exciting.  
> I just want to say before you start reading that I do not support what Kori and Roy did in any way or form. Maybe the first part of the chapter was kind of unnecessary ...  
> For myself I’m just gonna say that I didn’t want Jason and Tim to meet again. Jason would have definitely done something stupid and I didn’t want that (yet). (In the begin I had planned Jason to not go to the meeting because he decided not to himself : but I realized that he’s not really that kind of person ... he would just go there to proof a point and that would definitely be bad news bears).

“I can’t believe you drugged me.” Jason says with a shake of the head. Unbelief lingers in his tone and he even sounds on the verge of becoming hysteric.

“Jason, we had no choice!” Roy blurts out in response looking like a deer caught in the headlights. He cringes when Jason glares at him in response.

They had just gotten back from the VIP fan-meeting and found Jason standing in the hotel hallway ready to put a bullet through their heads.

“I said I was fine. I said that I had this under control.” He hisses his words like a snake and the last part comes out especially foul. His eyes – greener than usual, that crazy hue – settle on Kori and for a moment she sees how he takes a mental step back. By that action she guesses that her face doesn’t look as cold and unmoving as she feels. But that doesn’t stop him from spilling hurtful accusations.

“You don’t trust me at all.” He says with a laugh that is close to hysterical and hateful. His eyes turn away and to the ground as if he’s ashamed.

They both know he isn’t.

“Jason w-“ She doesn’t get to finish her hesitant explanation as the angry and confused male interrupts her, “Stop, I don’t want to hear it.” Kori frowns at that and Roy has to stop himself from sighing. This wasn’t going to be pretty.  
“You don’t want to hear what exactly, Jason?” She says as she takes a step forward, Jason’s eyes snap up towards her in surprise.

“That in just one day you’ve become worse again? All that progress you made in these 7 years dumped into the drain.” The woman says in accusation as she takes another step. “Or perhaps about what you’ve been doing this night?” She snaps and his eyes narrow. “Oh, Jason, I know where you’ve been and what you did.” Kori says slowly, mimicking Jason’s foul expression. “You think I can’t see what’s going on in your head, what’s happening to you -” She continues then adds in a whisper, “think again.”

Jason looked livid, his nostrils moved like those of a bull. Roy was sure that in about a second he would do something stupid. Probably scream at them that they don’t know shit.

But … It seemed that Kori too was out for blood today.

“Ever since you met that boy you’ve been on the edge, Jason.” Kori says, continuing her rant from before, standing just inches away from the seething male.

She had decided not to bring up Jason’s stroll of the city at night … and him dealing with the city’s underworld. It seemed like he hadn’t gone without beating some to the other world either, going by the newsflash. But with the look he was giving her she really wanted to bring it up again and in full colors. They had promised each other that they would stop their reckless vigilantism, they would concentrate on their music. Jason had been the one to suggest it and they all held their word … until this night obviously.

She continues, “Did you really think that we’d let you meet him again?”

‘After what happened’ those words lingered in the air heavily.

Jason seemed to finally understand what this was all about and the gears worked in his head. That’s why they drugged him, they didn’t want him at the meeting.

They didn’t want him to meet Tim Drake again.

Roy wasn’t entirely sure if she was referring to the angry mental breakdown before the concert yesterday or if she meant Jason’s vigilantism in the night.

He hadn’t witnessed it personally – he was kind of sleeping like a log after the concert – but around 6 am someone was angrily banging on his hotel door and abusing the doorbell. It was Kori and she looked angry and panicked and so many other emotions that he had immediately woken up while standing at the door in his underwear.

She had explained that after the concert she was still worrying about Jason and that she had decided to check up on the black haired male. He wasn’t in his hotel suite but the window was wide open.

She flew around the city … trying to be as unnoticeable as possible, she added when Roy frowned. That was something she had promised not to do.

Kori left out the part in her mind that screamed at her to find Tim. What if Jason went as far as to – No, she trusted him.

In the end she didn’t find him but when she came back a few hours later she saw Jason sleeping soundly with his knife on the nightstand and that stupid red mask of his. After that she had ran to Roy.

The newsflash they read on the Internet that morning wasn’t comforting either, it definitely made things clear for them. At least Kori felt more relieved than she should have felt.

They had decided to come into action.

Kori knew that their manager had given Stephanie, Cassandra and Tim the tickets to the meeting. She was certain that they would go since Stephanie had said that they would not miss such an opportunity.

There was no way that they could let Jason meet Tim. Not again, not after they saw what it did to their friend.

It was also for Tim’s sake, they couldn’t even imagine what Jason would do to him if he did snap. No matter how angry Jason was about his past life and especially being replaced, it wasn’t Tim’s fault. This would be the best way, for Jason, themselves and the guys.

The only problem remained how to keep Jason away. Asking him wasn’t an option he would just get angry with them, basically like he was now but the situation would be worse since he would have still gone (also beaten their asses). They could lock him in the suite but he did kind of manage to climb out of the window that night and added with his training and abilities … so that didn’t seem a good solution either (and he would beat their asses as soon as he freed himself).

The drugging option seemed the best. It hurt her heart to think about doing something like that – she was really against using such filthy methods and so was Roy – but they didn’t have a lot of time to come up with alternatives. It was rash, it was stupid but it would work.

Using Jason’s trust like that would surely bite them in the ass later but Kori couldn’t help but still slip the sleeping pills into his morning coffee. It would knock him out for a good 4-5 hours, she knew how effective they were since she used them herself on occasions.

It would be long enough for them to deal with the fan meeting. No matter how disappointed some fans would be, they would understand if they guilt tripped them with an exhausted and sick Jason.

Kori kept reminding herself that this was for Jason’s sake as he silently sipped his coffee.

“Meeting him once for such a short while made you like this …” Jason seems taken aback by that, angrily pulling a hand through his hair. “Like what, Kori?” He asks but his eyes betray that he knows.

“Did you really think that going would be a good idea?” She then adds hesitantly after a moment of silence, ignoring his question. She looks at him with hope filled eyes.

It turns silent for a while.

“Fuck if I know.” Jason finally says. “I don’t know anything anymore. Fuck.” He covers his face with both his hands and slides down the wall.

“I thought I was okay. I thought I was over it.” He whispers angrily.

“I wanted to shoot him.” He finally admits and Kori starts shaking, her gut feeling had been right.

Roy doesn’t even know who needs more support at the moment.

“Hurt him … “ The resigned whisper of Jason adds. He looked so broken. “But I didn’t, instead I went into the city.” He shakes his head and doesn’t go into the further details of his night out.

“Sometimes I really just want to go … to Gotham.” He spits out the word as if it burns his tongue. “What scares me the most is that I don’t know what I will do if I do go back there.” He falls quiet.

Kori takes that momentum to throw herself at the hurting man. Tears are spilling down her cheeks and she clings to him as if her life depends on it. She whispers ‘sorry’ repeatedly and he kind of forgets why he was even angry to begin with – apart from the green using his weakness – but he did remind himself not to trust anyone making his coffee again.

He knows that they meant well, they did it for him, no matter how stupid their method was. Still it doesn’t sit right with him. He won’t forgive them that easily, he has a hard time trusting people especially if they don’t trust him back and pull shit like this.

This just showed that they were still afraid of his pitmadness. He wouldn’t lie if he said he was too. It would never completely leave him he knew that.

Jason eases after a while and drops his face on top of her head. He gets a face full of orange hair and his nose itches … but he can deal with those things later.

Roy sits down next to them and puts a hand around the black haired man’s shoulders.

“Next time we talk about it, okay? Don’t go slipping shit into my coffee.” Jason grumbles. Roy laughs uneasily, “Like talking ever worked.”

They probably looked like idiots, sitting in the hallway of a hotel and bawling their eyes out.

 

* * *

 

For the umpteenth time that day Tim frowned. Something bugged him and no, it wasn’t the part where Jackson hadn’t shown up on the fan meeting. The meeting where they would get to spend 15 minutes – in a three person group - in a room with the three artists and ask them questions or just talk to them randomly. … He was kind of upset about him not showing up but that wasn’t the thing that had him frowning.

Okay yes it kind of was.

Kori and Roy had shown up looking exhausted and for some reason looking really jumpy and suspicious. It seemed like the rest couldn’t tell but especially Cassandra noticed that something was on their minds.

The two celebrities had explained that Jackson was down with a very high fever. His condition hadn’t been good before the show but it seemed like the concert had only made it worse for the singer. They had apologized a lot for that and said that if anyone – out of the 15 people including them – was unhappy they would refund the money and/or plan another meeting for free.

Nobody seemed to really mind after Roy had suggested prolonging the time to 30 minutes instead. People were really understanding and feeling it for the sick and exhausted singer, even Tim was glad that he hadn’t forced himself to come in his state. His state wasn’t good at all going by the small breakdown they had witnessed in the hotel lobby the day before. It had to be really bad now if he had decided not to show up, knowing how much they always wanted to please their fans.

Now the thing was, when Tim entered the room with Steph and Cassie he saw how Kori Anders stiffened. She tried to wipe of her state with a smile but Tim and Cassandra both saw that she wasn’t feeling comfortable at all, even strained. She was okay with talking to Stephanie and Cassandra it seemed but when it came to Tim she would look kind of out of it. Like she was thinking about something. Like she really wanted to ask him something but couldn’t.

It was kind of unsettling how she looked at him and even Roy seemed to catch on as he looked at her in question and she nodded. His eyes had sharpened for but a moment but he soon relaxed and slapped Kori on her back, snapping her out of it. He had apologized and said that Jackson really wanted to meet them after Kori had babbled about how much she liked them and how she wanted to befriend them without making it awkward. Also how she had definitely found Tim a cutie…

The woman looked startled at the explanation as she told Roy to ‘stuff his piehole’. After that everything turned back to normal it seemed and the meeting went without any further complications. Just Tim blushing like a tomato and Stephanie howling in amusement. It was a good explanation for why Kori had been looking at him like that and acting like that…

Still it didn’t sit right with him. He didn’t know why. Her look just didn’t seem like the one a girl would throw at a guy she found attractive … or cute for that matter. When he had asked Cassandra she had shrugged and said that she didn’t have much experience with woman in love and their body language.

Then there was also the way Jackson had acted the previous day towards him …

 

They had just arrived back at the mansion, kind of happy to be back, kind of wishing that the weekend had lasted a bit longer.

“Master Timothy, Mistresses Stephanie and Cassandra.” Alfred addresses them with a small smile on his face as he greets them on the porch. “I’m glad to have you back.”

“Good to see you, Alfred!” Stephanie says as she throws herself at the butler. He doesn’t even budge from his spot as she hugs him.

“Good to see you too, Mistress Stephanie.” He says as she releases him with a pout.

“Comon Alfred! I told you to call me Stephanie!” She whines. Cassandra hits her across the back of her head and the blonde girl gasps. “Hey! What was that for Cassie?!”

Tim rolls his eyes as he chooses to enter the mansion instead, grabbing his luggage and passing by Alfred. “How’s everything going?” He asks and the butler settles his attention on him and away from the two girls running around the front garden.

“Everything is going splendid, Master Timothy.” He says as he smiles and disapprovingly shakes his head at Tim carrying his own luggage. “Well apart from Master Bruce and young Master Damian having gotten some nasty injuries.” He adds with a sigh.

Tim smiles at that and nods as he enters the house and starts walking straight to his room. He would leave for his safe house later on the day.

“Tim!” Someone calls from the living room. He would recognize that voice anywhere.

“Babs! What are you doing here?” He says happily as he drops his luggage and runs to the woman waving at him. They hug and she smiles at him happily.

“Oh you know, just thought I’d visit. Everyone is gathered at the mansion now that you’re back so we kind of decided to have dinner together.” The red haired woman says as she rolls herself towards the stairs.

Tim follows and picks up his luggage again. “Wait, Dick is here too? Didn’t he say he was busy?”

“Well he said he would be here by 5 but he’s still not here as you can see … by the lack of sound.” They both laugh at the last part. Tim then helps Barbara to get up the stairs with the special elevator Bruce installed just for her.

“So how was the trip? Heard you went to a concert.” Barbara says as they finally reach the top of the stairs. Tim pipes up at that. “Oh man it was amazing! We went on a city trip of New York before the concert but to me personally the concert was the best.” He says excitedly and she listens to him with amusement.

“We were so lucky, the Outlaws stayed in the same hotel as us and I think we somehow even befriended them? Well at least Kori, I’m not sure about Roy and Jackson is a no for sure.” He rants on but she doesn’t interrupt him. “I think their manager knows Bruce … she kind of gave us tickets to a VIP meeting. Too bad the singer didn’t show up.” Barbara noticed how Tim’s excitement died down and how he seemed to remember something, something that bothered him.

“Hey Tim, I know this is hard to believe but I honestly have no idea who these people are. I don’t think I’ve heard even one song of them.” She admits with an uncertain smile. Tim looks at her as if she grew a second head. “Seriously?”

She nods, “Care to show me so that I at least know what you kids get excited about these days?”

Tim proceeds to push her to his room, messy as ever, and quickly switches on his laptop. “I can’t believe this, Barbara!” He exclaims. “Not even one song!”

“I’m not really a music person. Well apart from classical music.” Tim throws her a look that makes her laugh. “I’m sorry?” She finally says as he shoves the laptop on her lap. Music starts playing and Barbara listens intently.

After listening to Tim’s all time favorite accompanied by a lyric video she had to admit that she liked it. Especially the lyrics she liked but she couldn’t complain about the singing either. The singer really had a nice voice and Tim seemed to brighten at her praise. It was as if she was praising him and not the band.

“The Outlaws, huh? What a funny name.” Barbara says as Tim puts on another song. “Oh I’ve heard this one on the radio!” She exclaims with a gasp, so she did listen to their songs. Pretty often too, she just didn’t know the artists and honestly she didn’t really care about all that. That was until now. She just really wanted to see who had gotten Tim, Stephanie and Cassandra so excited.

“See, there is no way that you haven’t heard their songs. They are awesome.” Tim says as the song ends and Barbara nods at him in agreement as she types the band’s name in the search engine and clicks on pictures.

“Are you sure you want to see what they look like?” Tim says with a grin. “Don’t start fangirling okay?”

“As if. I’m not you.” The ginger says as she looks the pictures over.

Then her mouth falls open as she clicks on a picture in the third row. It has a close up of the three band members.

“Oh that’s an old one. I think from three or four years back?” Tim says as he looks the picture over. “You should try the sixth …” He falls quiet as he takes in his companion’s face. “Barbara? Are you okay?” She sure didn’t look like it.

“I – I’m fine.” She stutters, looking like she had just seen a ghost, but her eyes don’t leave the screen for even a moment. “Hey, what’s his name?” She says eventually as she points at Jackson and Tim frowns as he says, “Jackson Red, why are you asking? Is this how fangirls are made?” He says the last part teasingly but Barbara ignores his joke completely.

“It’s just … god I’m probably wrong but … damn.” She looks to be in some kind of shock as she shakes her head. “This can’t be right, it is just a coincidence.”

“What? Barbara? Just tell me.” Tim presses, what had gotten Barbara so freaked out?

“I don’t even know how to say this.” Tim was getting kind of impatient now as he grabbed the laptop and typed the singer’s name in the search engine. When the pictures showed up on the screen he placed the laptop back in the lap of Barbara again.

“Oh my god.” She looked on the verge of crying now. “Jason.” She whispers hoarsely as she covers her mouth. “He looks so much like Jason.”

At that moment Tim could have sworn that his world crashed down. “Jason? What Jason?” He asks hesitantly as his heart drums in his chest. Barbara doesn’t even look at him as she starts talking again, trying not to cry, “I wonder if this is how he would have looked like,” She breathes in to calm herself, “If this is what he would have done if he was still alive.” It doesn’t work, she covers her face now to hide it from the world as tears stream from her eyes.

Puzzle pieces started to come together in Tim’s head.

Jason.

Alive.

Jason Todd the deceased Robin? The one before him, the Robin he had photographed at night and kind of followed around. The second Robin he had looked up to? The one he had dreamed of meeting but never could? The one murdered by the Joker in cold blood? The one that had turned Dick into a crying mess for months as he locked himself up in his room, only going out to punch people in the face as Nightwing and to hunt down the Joker? … The one loss that Bruce still couldn’t get over … the one he still blamed himself for? The one that had almost turned Bruce into a killer? Hell, turned Dick into a killer? The one that had completely broken the batfamily with his dead?

It couldn’t be. He was … he was dead. They had a body, held a burial for god’s sake. There was no way, it was probably just a coincidence. But then why was his mind screaming at him that everything made sense now. The way Jackson had acted when he heard his name, him not showing up at the meeting, Kori and Roy acting so weird towards him. That explained so much.

Jackson knew who he was and that’s why he had acted weirdly when he heard Tim say his name. Jackson knew because he wasn’t Jackson, he was Jason Todd.

But how did Jason know about Tim? No that wasn’t the pressing question.

How was Jason alive? Or maybe it wasn’t Jason? Maybe it was really just someone that made Barbara freak out by how much he looked like Jason? But then why had Jackson acted so weird? Why had Kori and Roy acted so weird? Was it really just Kori finding him appealing? Then what about Jackson? Did he flip out because Tim had the same name as someone he knew?

“Jason Todd.” Tim says and Barbara breathes in with a shudder as she hears the name. She obviously doesn’t want to hear it.

So many questions swarmed in Tim’s head that he didn’t even notice how Dick ran up the stairs and into his room.  
“Wow what the hell Tim you’re here for like 5 minutes and you already made Barbara cry!” Dick says in disappointment as he takes in the two ruffled looking members of his family. “What is wrong- hey, hey! Guys!” He says in panic now as he tries to snap Tim out of it.

It works and Tim blinks at him in surprise. “R-richard.” He whispers with wide eyes. Dick looks at him in worry as he releases him. “What’s wrong buddy?” Dick asks as he strokes the hair of his confused adopted brother. “Why is Babs crying?”

He had to tell them, he had to. A fire burned in his eyes as he grabbed Dick’s arm. “Dick, look at this and tell me what you think.” Tim says as he leans over the crying Barbara. She seemed to be calming down already if the hiccups told him anything. Dick did the same as he turned and looked at the computer screen in Barbara’s lap.

Tim looked at Dick’s face and saw how the smile slowly dropped down into nothing and how his lip started trembling, how his eyes widened and how he looked whiter than usual as the live seemed to leave him. “W-what?” He said unintelligently as he gapped at the pictures on the screen. “What is this?” He demanded then as he looked at Barbara shaking her head and then at Tim.

“No, no, no, Dick. That is not him. Stop. He just looks like him. Don’t do this.” Barbara says and the two men have a hard time deciphering what exactly she is saying through the sobs.

“That is not who? Are we talking about … Jason?” He said the name hesitantly and his eyes drop closed as he breaths in deeply. “What is this, Tim?” He opens his eyes again to look at his brother intently.

Tim bites his lip as he thinks.

“This is Jackson Red the singer of the Outlaws.” He says as he points at the laptop, “Jason Todd might not be as dead as we think he is.” He finally says and he sees how a light fires up in Dick’s eyes after a moment.

Barbara doesn’t seem to agree as she reveals her angry face. “Stop it! He’s … he’s gone.” She says brokenly as she drops her hands on her lap. “Don’t get your hopes up for the impossible.” She says sternly as she looks at them with her puffy red eyes. “They just look alike. It happens.”

Dick seems to agree with her as the fire disappears and he closes his eyes again. “She’s probably right, Tim.” He sighs.

Tim doesn’t agree. “No! You don’t understand! He acted really weird when we met face to face. Especially when I told him my name!” He exclaimed trying to get Dick on his side again. It seemed to work.

“Coincidence?” Dick said with a cracking voice, even he didn’t seem to buy that bullshit as his eyes shifted.

“Come on, Dick! I would never do this to you guys if I wasn’t certain, I would never bring this up. You know I wouldn’t!” Tim continues, sounding a bit offended. Barbara looks at a loss of words.

Dick nods as he looks at the laptop screen intently. “Run a face scan, see how much the face correspondents. Find the oldest pictures, information and anything that could be used on Jackson Red. ” Dick was quick to come into action like always, no time wasted. “The batcomputer will get us the pictures of Jason.”

“Just a face scan won’t be enough.” Barbara says uncertain but then her eyes light up as she turns back to being good old Oracle. “We need to run a blood test, that is the only thing that will give us certainty. If the blood is a match then we still have to find out whether or not he’s a clone.”

Tim smiles. “Glad to have you guys with me.” He says as he pats Babs on the head. “Just know what you’re getting us into, Timothy.” She says sternly. He could certainly take that tone as a threat. “Nobody else can know of this until we’re certain, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so excited to write the next chapter. You don’t even know.  
> Now the only thing I wanted to ask you guys: any preferences for how/when/where they will ambush Jackson aka Jason? I have some scenarios but I’m just wondering what you guys think would be the most fun/badass.  
> All I know for certain is that Jason isn’t going to go down easily at all :’D Blood will be spilt and it probably won’t be Jason’s (too bad for Barbara, Dick and Tim, they thought this would be easy? think again)
> 
> Also I checked the ‘how much does a person change from 16 years old to 20 years old’. I must say that a lot remain recognizable and don’t change a lot. Of course there are those that do change a lot too but I’m going with: Jason’s face didn’t change a lot, he got buffer and older ... and a white streak of hair but with the pictures from when he was 19/20 years old it was possible for Barbara to flip out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go haywire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I want to thank everyone who has supported me with this fic! Especially the people who took their time to comment. Big thanks to Black_And_Blue_Hood for writing out the ideas. Sadly I didn’t use both it in the end but I did add your part with Barbara realizing that confronting wouldn’t be a good idea.  
> Also thanks to thienna, your comment really stuck to me. And Umbra, you’re a sweetheart, thanks for helping me out!  
> This chapter was very hard to write, I don’t even know how often I had to rewrite it. Nothing seemed to make sense (it still doesn’t) but I decided to just go with whatever my brain came up with. I’m just gonna leave it like this, feel free to imagine something else happened if you don’t like it.  
> Secondly, University started again so the updates might take longer :( heavy loaded course...  
> Enjoy!

“What do you mean my plan won’t do?” Dick says bewildered as he swings his hands to show it. Barbara sighs at the display and Tim just throws them both a sympathetic smile.

“Dick, just think about it.” She starts. “If it really is Jason, and we don’t know for sure, but if he is then that means he would definitely recognize you.” She clears her throat before continuing. “Unless of course he has memory loss or some other condition but we don’t know that for sure. I’m just wondering why he has been hiding from us. Don’t you think it would be weird, Dick? Just imagine how freaked out he would be if we suddenly showed up declaring that we know who he is or that he’s alive. Then again imagine if it isn’t Jason and we do that …”

“I have to agree with her, Dick, I don’t think charging in there screaming accusations at him is going to give us what we want. He must have his reasons for playing this game.” Tim chimes in with a thoughtful nod of the head. Barbara throws him a look and he quickly adds, “If he is our man of course.”

Dick had a really grim expression on his face and Barbara was afraid that he would do something stupid if she didn’t convince him. At the moment they didn’t have enough information. It wouldn’t be wise to face the situation head on, there was too much at risk.

“There is also the fact that he acted strangely when he met Tim and especially when Tim introduced himself. There is definitely something going on in his head and we don’t know what it is. I’m not saying we shouldn’t act, I’m just saying we should be really careful about it.” The red haired woman says a bit more pressing.  

Finally the acrobat seemed to understand the graveness of the situation.

If it was indeed Jason, the real one with his memories intact, then that left the question hanging why he hid himself from the family. Had he faked his own dead? To Dick that really wasn’t a possibility, he had been there, he had seen the cold and lifeless body of his dear adopted brother. He had even been there when that body had been buried. But then what exactly had happened afterwards?

It was such a shock to him when he saw him again, after all those years, on Tim’s laptop screen. The face, the eyes, and the way he held himself, the whole damn aura and appearance, everything reminded him of Jason. He was so afraid that maybe it wasn’t but at the same time he was afraid to find out that it was indeed his Jason. He had so many questions that couldn’t be answered, at least at the moment.

He still wasn’t sure how to feel about all this. He was on the verge of a hysteric breakdown, at the same time he was feeling nauseas and on top of that was a feeling of unbelief, relief and happiness mixed in one.

“Fine, I understand.” Dick says with a slump of his broad shoulders. “What do you suggest we do then?”

Barbara adjusts her glasses as she turns back to the monitors in the clock tower. “Now that is the hard part. We need to get a sample of his blood without making it seem suspicious … or finger prints.” She taps away on the keyboard, closing the tab that held the face scan that stood at 82%. They had used the last picture they had from Jason before his death and the earliest they could find of Jackson. I had to be around a four-year difference if it was indeed Jason. “Preferably both but I guess getting the finger prints for now would be more realistic.”

“Let me guess, my plan B isn’t to your liking?” Tim says with a smirk, tapping his fingers on the back of Barbara’s wheelchair.

The red haired woman gives him an amused smile. “We’re not kidnapping anyone just because you didn’t get a _bloody_ autograph.” Dick had to chuckle at her choice of words and even Barbara seemed to catch on. “It seems like you have rubbed off on me, Dick.” She says with a shake of the head. Tim had to agree, she was never one for puns.

“Well then what about plan A?” Dick says with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah yes, well as Tim said it seemed like their manager had a profound interest in the Waynes. That will definitely help us get to this party.” She kept typing as Dick looked at her in confusion.

“Wait didn’t you say we weren’t supposed to meet him face to face?” 

“That’s correct, that’s why we only need the invitations to get in.” She says without looking at him. “I never said _we_ would go.” Dick seemed to catch on. “Who did you have in mind?” He says as he crosses his arms and looks at the big screen. “And how do you even know about this party and that they will be there?”

It was Tim’s turn to explain. “As I said, big interest, manager invited us herself after Jackson didn’t show up on the meeting. She organizes these parties, said they would definitely be there. Maybe she’s just a party animal –“ He cringes at the idea. “Maybe some other reason, not really relevant to be honest but she did admit that she forbids the Outlaws from organizing their own parties so maybe that’s why.” He shrugs when Dick gives him a look, “Afraid of scandals I guess.”

“Can’t blame her.” Barbara says as she finds the thing she had been looking for. “Rockstars, you know.”

“Those are just stereotypes, Babs.” Tim says with a roll of his eyes.

“So anyway, who is going then?” Dick says as he tries to get the main topic back again.

Tim would almost ask if Dick was feeling okay. Like really, no jokes? No puns? Nothing? But he could see the look in the older man’s eyes, it really told him enough. Tim himself was feeling kind of uneasy. Maybe this was something that they shouldn’t pry in? Something they shouldn’t stick their noses in?

No, those weren’t options, he was the one that had brought it up and he would be the one to finish it.

The youngest clears his throat, “Well, I am.” Yet again Dick throws him a look.  
“And that is a good idea how? He didn’t exactly give you a heartwarming welcome previous time.” He points out as he shakes his head. “We need another plan, if we only need finger prints then that changes a lot. We can work the rest out later.”

Barbara nods, he was right. Getting blood would be way harder but just getting a few finger prints shouldn’t be as much of a challenge. Maybe it wouldn’t give them the 100% - it could still be a clone since doppelgangers couldn’t copy the fingerprints – but at least they would know that it wasn’t a coincidence and that it was indeed Jason.

Of course they would have to actually get him to talk to find out – did he know the things only their Jason could know or did he perhaps have memory loss - but that would be a job for later. That would even be the easiest part, basically seeing the recognition in his eyes would be good for starters.

“I found out where he is currently staying, since the band is back in America now it would be his usual apartment in Metropolis.” Tim says thoughtfully.

“Whatever it is you do, you can’t make it seem suspicious. He can’t know something is happening. Also for god’s sake don’t blow your cover if you’re thinking about doing something risky.” She turns to Dick. “Especially you, mister Grayson.”

“I wouldn’t dream of blowing my image of the ‘golden boy’.” The older male says with a cheeky grin that gets him a groan from the woman. “I mean it.” She says.

“Wait, I might have a plan C then.” Tim says, breaking the silent battle between the two other people in the clock tower. They settle their attention to him in curiosity.

“We mix A and C, we use the day of the party to sneak into the place he’s staying. We know for certain that he won’t be home that day but just to make sure I’ll ask Stephanie to keep an eye out for him.” Barbara nods while Dick just frowns. “Stephanie will be attending the party?” He asks slowly and Tim has to stop himself from smiling. “She was invited by Kori Anders and I have a feeling she won’t miss a party like that. Don’t worry Dick, he didn’t seem to know who she was, probably thought she was some random chick with us.” He says to calm down the older man.

It doesn’t work.

“Oh, you mean Stephanie finding out … I’m sure she won’t pry.” That didn’t sound convincing at all.

* * *

 

Two weeks had passed by since then.

They still went with the plan. They didn’t really have much of a choice, it seemed to be the best option. They had worked the plan out a bit: no usual costumes, no marks of recognition, instead they would settle for all black suits – they still resembled their usual vigilant attires but honestly only they could tell. Oracle would make sure the streets were clear and that no other superheroes would interfere, apart from that she would be on standby – also hack the alarm.

Tim had talked with Stephanie the day prior and asked her to keep the little earpiece in her ear so that she could tell him about the party and Jackson arriving and leaving since he was oh so sad that he couldn’t make it. She looked at him for a long time then murmured ‘your crush is getting out of hand, boy’ took the bug and left.

It was a pretty long drive but once they had arrived and settled in their hired apartments, there was no feeling of fatigue at all.

Currently they were sitting on the roof of the building they were supposed to break in to. It didn’t seem like a hard job to them: 12th floor, big window divided in three parts, one of the parts could easily be taken out and put back in when they left. They had the equipment with them to take it out and put it back in as if nothing had ever happened. Sadly no fire escape but that wasn’t a problem and to their luck it was already dark outside.

“Isn’t this the same black color you had a few years ago? Or was that one slightly bluer?” A voice says through the earpiece in Dick’s ear, the comment made him roll his eyes. “Very funny Oracle.” He retorts, why did everyone think it was funny to make fun of his suits. Yeah he liked changing them (a lot) but so what?

“Anyway it seems like he just left the building. I’m disabling the alarm and security.” Oracle says and both Tim and Dick lean over the edge to see a silhouette stepping into a car. These couple of hours Dick literally had to stop himself from just barging into the apartments and tackling the man to the ground. Now again he had to restrain himself from jumping down. It wouldn’t be a wise move.

Tim patted him on the back in sympathy, “Lets wait a bit before we go.”

 

They had waited around 15 minutes before actually moving. They made quick work of the window – Tim wondering if a criminal career wouldn’t suit them better – and Dick pried his arm inside to shove the window open. It didn’t go up all the way but it was enough for Dick to easily slip in and take over the piece of glass that Tim was holding. He placed it on the ground as he helped Tim inside and unclicked the rope that was keeping him from falling a few minutes ago. Tim did the same as he sighed in relief.

“Everything clear?” Nightwing asks Oracle before proceeding further into the apartment.

They took in the living room with their night vision turned on, it was simple and to Tim’s surprise very neat and clean looking. There were no scattered items anywhere and even the cushions on the couch looked to be untouched. The same went for the gigantic bookshelf standing in the living room. The books all stood straight and sorted.

“I’m going to turn on the ALS.” Dick says as a head-up to Tim so that he could turn his night vision off. He takes out a stick from his belt and turns it on. It emits a bright blue color, an alternate light source; they were really prepared for this.

Their eyes have to adjust but it doesn’t take long for Dick to walk to the glass table standing in front of the TV.

“What the hell.” Dick says surprised. Tim hurries to his side and his eyes widen. There was but one mark on the table and it was clearly one of a coffee mug, there wasn’t a single fingerprint.

“That’s kind of creepy.” Tim says as he looks around, getting the flashlight from his pocket. “You check the living room, I’ll check the kitchen.” He says as he leaves to explore.

It doesn’t take long for Dick to join him in the kitchen. “So? Find anything?” He asks as he scans the glass dinning table with the ALS. Yet again there were no fingerprints.

Tim shakes his head as he turns off his own ALS. This was definitely weird, either nobody lived here – but they clearly saw Jackson leave – or the guy always walked in gloves, there were absolutely no fingerprints anywhere. Then again maybe he was just a huge clean freak and going by the state of his apartment that wasn’t even out of the question. Everything was sorted and ordered, polished and clean. Tim was feeling kind of ashamed since his own apartments always looked like a war zones with clothes, books and other stuff scattered everywhere. If Alfred didn’t come to visit him at times to clean up … Tim didn’t even want to think about that.

“Well I’ll check the bedroom then …” Dick says leaving Tim to either head for the other rooms or the bathroom.

 

They meet again in the hallway, Dick standing in front of a closed door contemplating what to do. “Just leave it. I’m sure the bathroom will have something.” Tim says as he moves past him and Dick decides to follow him.

Alas the bathroom doesn’t give them much either. “He’s like a ghost.” Tim mutters as he scans the doorknobs to no avail. “How is this even possible? Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Well considering I never actually broke into apartments to scan for fingerprint … no.” Dick says as he shakes his head in disbelief. If this wasn’t suspicious then he didn’t even know. The guy would have a lot of explaining to do.

“I’m going for the locked room.” Dick says and Tim wants to follow him but a beeping in his ear stops him.

“Steph? Hey what’s up?” He says as he presses the communication system in his ear.

“Well uhm … I don’t know when he left but Jackson isn’t here anymore it seems. So whatever it is you’re doing you better hurry up.” She says in a hushed tone and Tim can clearly hear booming music in the background.

He mentally curses and rushes to Dick who is working on the lock. “We have to go, he left the party.” He says as Dick reaches for his own headpiece with slightly wider eyes.  
“Oracle what is the situation we have Intel that target left the party?” He asks and it doesn’t take long for the woman to reply. “I didn’t see him leave on the security cameras but I will keep checking the area around the building. I think it is time for you to start getting out of there.” She says as she taps on her keyboard. How the hell had she not see him leave? A backdoor she didn’t know of? What about the security cameras in the building? None of them showed him leaving the party place. Barbara was really starting to question her sanity (and the guy’s abilities).

Dick looked really annoyed as he rushed to the front door and checked the fingerprints on the knob and the whole door itself, yet again there were none. “You really got to be shitting me.” He says as he drags a hand over his covered head.

“I see him … and the girl, Kori was her name? They’re getting out of the taxi now.” Oracle piped through the earpiece in warning.

Tim starts urging Dick to leave. “Come on, we have to put that glass back in before he’s here.” But Dick had another plan.

* * *

 

Jason was enjoying the party. Well as much as he could with all those sleazy dickbags being around. He could handle the glares, hell he could even handle the straight-out hateful expressions of people but when people started looking at him as if he was the tastiest piece of candy they had ever laid eyes on … well yeah that was the part that had him groaning.

He couldn’t deny that in the beginning he had found those stares flattering and at times even pleasing to say the least but lately he wasn’t feeling it for getting attention … at all. Any kind of attention really, not just the eyefucking and flirting. Maybe it was kind of obvious why he was feeling uneasy but he refused to admit it. He also didn’t feel like getting close to people but that was kind of never his thing with the exceptions being Kori and Roy.

Well he sure had to admit that he was surprised when his phone buzzed and noted that the alarm system in his apartment had been deactivated. That sure had him raising eyebrows as he ignored Roy’s whining for him to put away his phone and enjoy the party for once. He didn’t and settled for shoving the ginger in the face without even looking up and then walking to a remote place in the penthouse buzzing with people. That would come to bite him in the ass later for sure.

Kori at that time was busy chatting with the girl she had befriended a couple of months ago. They were really hitting it off and Jason really hoped that the girl wasn’t who he thought she was. She didn’t look suspicious but she had been with the batman juniors so … you could never be too sure.

Well for now he would be careful around her, she didn’t look to be interested in him at all or paying him any attention, which was good.

He unlocked his phone and opened his personalized menu, clicking on the touchscreen to open the secret settings. Soon enough he could see that the window had been opened and that the heat sensors had registered something.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. This better not be what he thought it was.

He tapped in some codes and soon enough he had his hidden cameras activated. He was really grateful for Roy being so useful with technology.

He tapped on the feed of the living room and narrowed his eyes. There was movement, a person completely dressed in black, no marks of recognition, covered face. For a moment he thought that it really were burglars and he almost felt relief. He didn’t have anything in there he would really miss.

Then he saw the thing that the guy was holding … was it an alternative light source?

He blinked in unbelief and whispered ‘motherfuckers’ under his breath. Those were definitely not burglars or thieves. Well okay yeah they were trying to ‘steal’ something but it sure wasn’t his television.

The thing was, the apartment in Metropolis that classified as his and where everyone thought he lived wasn’t actually his real apartment. Yeah, he did own it but he didn’t stay in it. He kept is as clean as possible, no fingerprints, no marks, no anything that could be used to identify him. Instead he used the apartment as a ‘portal’, the place where he really stayed was the one underneath the fake one. The one underneath was bought with a fake name for obvious reasons. He would enter his ‘fake’ apartment and then use the secret passageway to get to the ‘real’ one a floor lower. Pretty neat right?

The reason? The two people snooping around was the exact reason why he had done that. If anyone from his old family would ever find out that he was still alive and come snooping in his apartment or come to ambush him then they would be in for a big surprise. He would never be unprepared.

He wasn’t even angry or sad, he really had expected this to happen some day. Them finding out about him being alive and well. He just didn’t expect them to come snooping in his apartment for … fingerprints? That was really sneaky of them, choosing not to confront him personally and instead settling for figuring out his persona first.

“Well then what should we do?” Jason murmurs to himself as he taps on another feed and sees another taller and broader guy looking around his bedroom. “What about putting on a show.” A smirk settles on his face as he pushes himself of the wall and heads over to Kori. It was time to let out the actor in him.

He sees the orange haired woman reach for her phone and a cuss escapes her lips as she says something to Stephanie and then leaves. 

As soon as she joins Jason, standing on the small balcony on the other side of the penthouse, she can’t stop herself from worrying. He looked a bit too calm for her liking. “What are you going to do?” She asks.

Jason hands her the phone and she clicks around the different cameras. “Those are definitely not burglars.” She mutters, and then adds, “No way do those use forensic technologies to steal something, it looks like they’re looking for something. Fingerprints?” She hands him back the phone and he nods.

“Worse than burglars.” He says with a huff.

Kori looks at him thoughtfully. “The passage?”

He shakes his head. “They won’t be able to break into that room and even if they do manage; they still won’t find it.” He says reassuringly. “So lets not give them the chance to break in there. Shall we?”

It doesn’t take them long to reach the doors of the apartment complex. Kori had grabbed Jason and they had jumped down from the balcony after which Kori had used her hocus-pocus to fly them to a nearby rooftop. After that they had used the fire escape to get down from the roof. Then they had taken a taxi to get to Jason’s apartment complex. Along the way they had discussed what they would do.

Kori looked at Jackson’s phone in her hand and at the camera. It seemed like the two intruders were in a hurry and that just proved that someone was keeping a look out. She then noticed how they discussed something and the bigger of the two ran to the bedroom, the other one hurried to the window.

Was he going to hide in there? She taped on the bedroom and saw how the guy opened the closet. Kori then looked at Jason with gleaming eyes as her lips spelled ‘closet, show time’.

 

The woman was rubbing Jackson’s back soothingly as he looked on the verge of a breakdown. The touch didn’t seem to help him a lot.

The elevator opens in front of them and they both step it. Jackson looks at the buttons warily and Kori sighs. “I’ll push them for you don’t worry, they’re not dirty.”

Barbara looks at the camera images with lifted eyebrows. That was kind of weird.

The elevator soon reaches their destination and they both step out.

“It’s okay, everything is alright.” The woman mutters as he struggles with his keys. “Do you want me to do it?” She asks as he looks at her.

Eventually she takes the keys from him, unlocks the door and they both enter the apartment. As soon as the door closes, Kori hisses. “I can’t believe she told you to not wear your gloves! What kind of fucking psychologist is she?! You’re definitely not ready for a step like that yet –“ She reaches for his hand and as soon as she touches him he starts shaking and breathing quickly as he tries to pull his hand away. “Fucking right, look at that reaction! I’m calling that bitch right now.” She screams as she walks to the living room and reaches for the home phone.

“She’s a psychiatrist … Wait! Don’t touch it, wear the gloves first.” Jackson exclaims in panic and Kori retracts her hand as if burned by fire. “Ah shit, right, sorry.” She mutters as she walks to the kitchen and opens a department with her shirt twisted around her hand. She gets out rubber pink gloves and pulls them on then proceeds to wash her hands with them on.

“Sit down, you need to calm down first before you scrub your skin off like previous time.” She commands as Jackson tries to flee to the bathroom.

“I just want to wash my hands.” He says but Kori takes none of it as she takes his hand and leads him to the couch.

“They’re clean.” The woman says reassuringly and he quietly sits down.

Dick all the while awkwardly hides in the walk-in closet in the bedroom. Tim had fled from the window and had put the glass back in, he had refused to leave at first.

The acrobat could hear everything that was happening outside but he really wondered what the hell all of that meant. It didn’t sound like Jason at all so far.

“Oracle –“ He whispered but Barbara was the first to talk.

“I don’t know what to say.” She says. “I seems like he has psychological issues … a phobia perhaps?” She taps some symptoms she witnessed into the search engine. “I think he has an OCD, fear of touch perhaps? Or fear of germs of contamination…” She finally says as she reads the Internet page.

“A what?” Dick whispers.

Barbara reads the page out loud. “OCD is a disorder that has a neurobiological basis. Put simply, it’s a potentially disabling illness that is characterized by persistent, uncontrollable thoughts, impulses, or images that are intrusive, unwanted and disturbing – obsessions - and ritualistic behavior – compulsions - performed in response to these obsessions. It’s a chronic condition, the best guess is the fear of germs and contamination.”

“That’s … wow.” Dick mutters as he tries to recall if Jason ever had anything like that. It would be weird if he did considering he used to be a street kid … But that condition would at least explain why the apartment looked to be one of a ghost.

His thoughts were interrupted. “Have you been taking your medicine?” The familiar woman’s voice says. She gets a groan in response.

“Jack, I mean it, don’t make me call your mother.” _Mother_???That had Dick leaning his ear against the door. Jason … didn’t have any relatives as far as he knew and definitely no mother.

“Nooooo.” The male voice moaned. “I don’t want her and dad to come over again. Don’t make them worry!” _Dad_? Well this was really getting out of hand, he definitely had no dad either. Maybe adoptive parents? He also couldn’t remember Jason being so whiney, he was always … snappy … a smartass in general.

Dick looks around the walk-in closet, wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into this time; maybe there would be fingerprints here? He turns on his night vision and to his surprise sees a few framed pictures standing on the dresser. He walks the short distance and picks up one of the frames.

He sees the by now recognizable faces of the band; Kori Anders, Roy Harper and Jackson Red. The picture portrays Roy hugging the two as Jackson looks at the camera with clear annoyance. He puts it back down and reaches for the second.

Jackson and a few teens surrounding him, one is sitting on his shoulders … that kid really resembled Jason in his childhood. He looked like a mini-Jackson, was the final thought Dick had as he put the picture down with his heart hammering in his chest.

The bigger frame held multiple pictures and made him close his eyes and clench his chest in agony. It was a frame with birthday pictures, going by the balloons and cake with candles shaped in the nr. 18, Younger Jackson – who looked different from Jason at that age somehow - was pouting as the younger teen from before blew out the candles on one of the pictures. In the next picture there was a dark haired woman with a card and car keys in her hand smiling at the camera. He couldn’t really see what the card was saying.

The next picture was the two boys together and a tall and broad man. The last picture was the whole family together, an older woman hugging Jackson. He looked happy … Dick felt a cold and nauseas all of a sudden.

Then he accidently dropped the picture.

“What the hell?” The woman voice from before exclaimed and Dick could hear footsteps approaching the bedroom after a moment of suspense. He could also hear Jackson protesting in the background. “Oh Jesus and mother Maria, if those are rats or mice I’m hanging myself!” He screeched loudly.

As Dick saw the doorknob move he lunged forward and threw open the door, successfully knocking the woman to the side. He ran to the living room and came face to face with wide, frightened glowing green eyes, which held tears at the edges. It was all so wrong, the color of the eyes, the expression…

“Don’t kill me … please … I’m too young to die … take Kori instead … she’s pretty …” The guy said in a high-pitched voice full of panic as he hugged his knees and Dick almost wanted to punch him for even suggesting something like that. Jason would have never done that. Kori seemed to agree, out of the bedroom she screamed at Jackson, “What the fuck, Jackson!”

That seemed to snap him out of it. “My neighbors! They have a lot of nice stuff! Only their kid is home today! Please, just don’t hurt me!”

There was no way this piece of shit that suggested taking his friend, or the people next door, over himself could be Jason. He refused to belief it as he angrily stormed to the front door, opened it and slammed it shut. 

* * *

 

Jason and Kori had descended through the secret passageways after that and were currently lounging in the ‘real' apartment while waiting for Roy to get there.

Jason was still wiping tears off of his face as he laughed like a maniac. “Jesus fucking Christ! This is pure gold! We should have become actors instead.” He said through laughs.

Kori slaps him as she passes by with a cup of coffee in her hand. “What if it didn’t work? I think we overdid it. We were just lucky he went into the closet and probably saw those fake pictures.” She says with a sigh as she sits herself down on the barstool in the kitchen.

“Kori, Kori, Kori.” Jason sings as he shakes his head. “This is my privilege, I know everything about them but they don’t know jack shit about me and what they do know I used against them today.” He explains.

The woman looks at him in thought. “The OCD to show that that time with Tim could have been linked to the disorder and that you could not possibly have any affiliations with being a street kid or at least a kid that used to stay in the dirtiest parts of Gotham.” He nods as he urges her to go on. “On top of that showing why your apartment had no finger prints or any other signs of you staying there. Don’t you think that’s too far stretched?”

Jason takes over from her, “The pictures to show that I have an actual family that isn’t adoptive since all those people resemble me in some way and especially the kid who definitely looks like my little brother. That to finish my background and story or at least proof a point.”

Kori looks at him. “The cowardly bitch comments?”

He throws her a smile that’s all teeth. “To piss off Dick Grayson and show him that Jackson Red is definitely not Jason Todd. He will refuse to belief it now, trust me.”

“I can’t believe it is as easy as you make it.” The tall woman says with a shake of the head. “They will just drop it now? Just like that? They didn’t get what they were looking for.”

“I know but the seed is sown. I know them well enough, after everything they saw today they will most likely drop it. If not … well then we just have to yet again show them how wrong they are.” Jason says as his gaze sharpens. “Damn I wanted to punch him so fucking badly, it took all my strength to keep the green at bay when he ran out like that.”

Kori frowns again but then gets a message from Stephanie that says _‘help, Roy just blacked out, think he’s drunk’_.

“Shit we forgot about Roy.”

* * *

 

Tim and Barbara had heard everything that had happened. Neither of them knew what to say to the angry Dick.

The anger had died down as they had returned back to the apartments. Now he just looked to be in pain and sorrow. Tim still didn’t know what to say. He had never known Jason personally but he had known the second Robin. What he had heard was a real punch to the gut. Dick seemed to think the same thing.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Dick.” The younger man says as he stands in the doorway looking at the brooding back of his older brother.

“No, it was a stupid idea to begin with. There is just no way that Jason is alive, we shouldn’t have hoped for the impossible.” His shoulders slump. “Barbara was right.”

“No, Dick, it can still be him … maybe he just changed. Even with mem-“ Dick held up his hand to shut the younger up.  
“I saw pictures, Tim. I saw his family, his brother is a copy of him, not adoptive for sure.” Dick says with the shake of his head and then it was Tim’s turn to slump his shoulders.

Oh. Pictures. Family pictures.

Nothing clicked into place, nothing fit. Apart from looking like Jason, there was nothing else about Jackson Red that resembled Jason.

“His eyes are the wrong color, Jason didn’t have such green eyes.” Dick whispers and Tim almost misses it because of the beeping of the earpiece.

“Stephanie?” He asks.

“Hey, so Tim I know I shouldn’t worry but I have a high or maybe drunk … I don’t know … Roy Harper is clinging to me and asking where Jason and Kori are and why they left him behind … again.” She stops talking then sighs. “Now he’s crying … I think he means Jackson though, stupid drunk … I’m worrying about Kori do you know where she is? She suddenly disappeared. What were you even doing today? Tim, hey, are you listening?” The woman rants on the other side of the line.

Tim wasn’t listening. Roy Harper had said Jason. Jackson and Jason did resemble each other a bit but there was no way – even for a drunk person – to mix those two names up.

“Holy fucking shit, Dick.” He breathes out angrily. Dick immediately turns to him, Tim was never one to cuss like that. “I think they played us.”

Dick looks very confused. “Stephanie just called me and said that the third member of the band is with her – drunk – and ranting that Jason and Kori left him behind. He called him Jason not Jackson.” Dick’s eyes widen.

“Ask her.” He says.

Tim does just that but not before Dick’s connected in the call, he had to hear this too. “Hey, Steph sorry for ignoring you, actually me and Dick are on this little mission so … please ask Roy about Jason. Not Jackson, just Jason. Jason Todd even. What connection is there between Jason and Jackson.”

Stephanie sounds surprised (and pissed) but eventually does what he asks of her. “I don’t like secrets, Tim, just so you know. He looks at me as if I just asked the secret of the world.” She says with a snort. “Oh, it seems like Jason is Jackson but he just uses a different name.” It falls silent for a while. “Asked him why, something about family issues … and being legally _dead_? Tim, I think this guy is beyond drunk to be honest he just fell asleep in the middle of talking.”

Tim doesn’t respond and instead cuts of the connection with a very smug expression on his face. “I don't think we need those fingerprints to confront him. That shit they pulled was a step too far.”

Dick silently agrees as he throws himself back on the bed. After what had happened today … Dick could not forgive Jason for pulling something like that on him. Jason had known, he had deliberately put on a show.

He was in for the surprise of a lifetime; two could play the game and Dick was never one to back out from games. If Jason wanted it the hard way … then Dick would play the hardcore way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn it Roy. 
> 
> (if you see any mistakes don’t be afraid to point them out)

**Author's Note:**

> Funny how I start writing fics that have been swarming my mind when summer vacation is almost over ...  
> Well I hope you enjoyed! I’ll try to update as soon as I can.  
> Next chapter will have the batfam, guess who is gonna be the fangirl/boy that is gonna ruin Jason’s life?  
> I’m way too excited to ruin my baby’s happy life ...  
> Any questions, suggestions, spelling/grammar mistakes and basically every form of talking is welcome.
> 
> Those who want to fangirl with me about Jason Todd or the Batman/DC/Marvel fandom in general ... find me on tumblr (just ask me for my tumblr).


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